132 TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 



ment than hybrids between zebras and horses, more espe- 

 cially at points where in horses the stripes long persisted. 

 Judging from the markings of my zebra hybrids, it might 

 have been predicted that crosses between an ass and a 

 zebra would present numerous irregularly arranged spots 

 over the hind quarters, and numerous ill-defined wavy 

 lines on the neck and on the sides of the body. 



As a matter of fact, there is preserved in the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington, a hybrid said to be 

 between a common zebra and a common ass, which is pro- 

 fusely spotted over the hind quarters, and marked by ill- 

 defined stripes on the neck and body. This hybrid has, 

 as might have been expected, a distinct dorsal baud, distinct 

 shoulder stripes, and well-defined transverse bars across 

 the legs. 



If in these hybrids we have a more primitive form of 

 marking than is ordinarily found in zebra-horse hybrids, 

 it is conceivable that in some of my hybrids a more 

 primitive arrangement of the stripes might be met with 

 than occurs in Eomulus; that as the mares belong to 

 different breeds and colours, and differ in the extent of 

 their inbreeding, the reversion (if there is such a thing) is 

 likely to be more marked in some of the offspring than in 

 others. I have already pointed out that though there 

 are only twelve cervical stripes in Matopo (the sire of the 

 hybrids) , there are, when the shadow stripes are included, 

 over twenty in a Transvaal filly and twenty-four in 

 Romulus. In the British Museum zebra-ass hybrid there 

 are numerous stripes which, because of their branching 

 and blending with each other, cannot be easily numbered. 

 In the Shetland hybrid there is an intermediate condition 

 of the neck stripes. T^venty-four stripes, as in Romulus, 

 have been differentiated, but a number of indistinct stripes 

 — bke the shadow stripes in the zebra filly— occupy the 

 intermediate spaces. That these narrow obscure stripes 

 are the vestiges of never very distinct ancestral stripes, 

 and that they correspond to some of the wavy lines in the 

 zebra-ass hybrid, seems to me extremely probable. But 



