TELEGONY AND REVERSION, 153 



narrow stripes or, to be more accurate, narrow ridges 

 (some of tliem over, some under, a quarter of an inch in 

 width) occur in all foals, more especially over the loins 

 and croup and iu the vicinity of the flank feather. These 

 ridges are especially evident at birth in well-bred foals 

 having a fine coat. 



When the finger is cai-ried across these ridges, one is 

 tempted to conclude they are entirely or mainly due to 

 crumpling or wrinkling of the skin, I was led to suspect 

 they were not due to crumpling of the skin by noticing 

 how the hair was shed in an Irish bay mare (Biddy) and 

 in her yearling hybrid, Remus, In the latter, the spaces 

 between the stripes across the hind quarters first lost their 

 hair, with the result that the stripes projected freely for 

 some time above the surface. In the dam, the hair in the 

 vicinity of the flank feather was shed so as to leave a 

 number of narrow tracks having the same disposition as 

 the ridges in new-born foals. Eventually the hair forming 

 the tracks was shed, leaving a perfectly smooth coat. 

 Soon after noticing this I had sent me a well-bred foal 

 (which died when about a week old) showing the character- 

 istic ridges on the sides of the body as well as over the 

 croup, loins, and hind quarters. I succeeded in getting 

 the skin preserved without in any way altering the appear- 

 ance of the ridges in question. When this skin was held 

 up to the lights it was at once evident that the ridges were 

 not due to furrows in the skin, but to the presence of 

 tracks of long hair, separated from each other by narrow 

 spaces sparsely covered by short fine hair. 



About the same time I had the opportunity of examining 

 twins* that had been born nearly two months before their 

 time. In one (the smaller) there were over the trunk 

 narrow tracks of long and relatively thick hairs, having 

 the same general direction as the hair in the adult. The 

 spaces between these tracks — on an average half an inch 

 in width — were occupied by short, fine, and almost invisible 

 hairs. In the larger twin, each track was wider but less 

 * Sire of twins a Clydesdale: dam a lij^ht cart-horse. 



