116 TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 



We can only guess as to the colour of the remote 

 ancestor of the horse, but nearly all who have made a 

 special study of the subject have come to the conclusion 

 that the less remote ancestors were dun-coloured. But it 

 is hardly sufficient to say the ancestors were dun-coloured, 

 for in Norway four shades of dun are recognised, which 

 include nearly every colour from white to black. There 

 are (1) white duns (white and light creams) with white 

 mane and tail ; (2) yellow duns with black mane and tail, 

 including creams and light bays ; (3) elk duns, frequently 

 approaching in hue bays, chestnuts, and browns ; and (4) 

 mouse duns, some of which are nearly black. After a full 

 consideration of the subject, I am inclined to believe the 

 body colour of the striped ancestral horse of the temperate 

 regions was mainly of a yellowish brown colour. As the 

 descendants extended their range the ground colour would 

 change, a sand colour probably prevailing in desert areas, 

 a reddish dun in the vicinity of forests, a mouse dun in 

 the far north, a light tint near the tropics, and in the 

 uplands a grey or ash tint. 



From various experiments made it seems to me that 

 black, white, grey, and cream-coloured horses, even if 

 striped, would have little chance of surviving long enough 

 in a wild state in the Northern Hemisphere to form black 

 and other conspicuously coloured breeds, and that the most 

 serviceable colour for northern horses, i. e. the most 

 protective colour, would be an indescribable shade of dun 

 approaching a sand colour on the one 'hand, and a dull 

 lustreless light bay on the other. The least conspicuous 

 pony in my possession is a typical Exmoor with the 

 characteristic mealy-coloured muzzle, black points, and 

 the body generally of a yellowish brown or dirty bay shade, 

 the belly and upper parts of the inside of the legs being 

 of a uniform dirty white. 



Black, flea-bitten, cream, and skewbald ponies are in 

 most circumstances extremely conspicuous, while the 

 mouse and dark yellow duns, the bay and brown ponies, 

 and the ash-grey or khaki-coloured asses are in some lights 



