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Centaur ; 



WONDERFUL HORSES. 



"So meekly docile thou art, inleed." 



WORK like the present would scarcely 

 be complete were it to pass unnoticed 

 some of the fabulous species of the horse 

 tribe. 



A few years ago there was exhibited 

 in Walsall a very curious animal — one 

 side of which resembled a very finely 

 developed horse, while the other possessed 

 all the characteristics of a cow, even to 

 the cloven hoof, and the rudimentary 

 formation of a horn. 



Now, as Dr. Gray observes, the horse family is distin- 

 guished from all others by its undivided hoof. That the 

 above animal was a cross between the horse and a Gnu — 

 which is a species of wild ass, and is called by the Dutch 

 settlers at the Cape, the '* Bastard Wild Beast'' — was con 

 sidered by some very probable. If so, that would account 

 for the cloven hoof and the horn, as the Gnu has both ; but 

 although the cloven hoof and the horn might be accounted 

 for upon that supposition, yet that could not account for the 

 flank and shoulder, which resembled those of a cow, as the 

 Gnu, although possessed of horns and cloven hoofs, has a 

 body resembling that of the horse. 



Some of the ancient writers describe a species of horse 

 with a mane extending the whole length of the animal, from 

 head to tail. 



Some authors have depicted horses with a unicorn-like 

 horn in their forehead. 



And among the collection made by Aldrovandus, is a horse 

 with a human head and face (Centaur) ; and another with 



