CLASSIFICATION OF HORSES. 423 



Faroe Islands, Hebrides and Connemara. On visiting 

 Crabbet Park Stud, by the kind permission of Mr. Blunt, 

 I examined 14 of his pure bred x\rabs, and found that 4 

 of them had no ergots, either before or behind ; that 3 

 had ergots behind, but not in front ; and that 7 had 

 ergots before and behind. I have also found ergots absent 

 in thorough-breds. It is probable that the respective 

 possessors of the peculiarities in question, inherited them 



Fig. 450. -Tables of incisors of a 14 year-old donkey (nat. size). 



from wild ancestors in which they were distinctive 

 characteristics ; but domestication has been such a potent 

 factor in breaking up equine varieties, that we cannot 

 regard all the members of a " breed," to be descended 

 from the same primitive type, although a certain percent- 

 age of them may have a common origin. 



As Prjevalsky's horse has only five loin vertebrae, he 

 may be in the same line of descent as Sanson's Equus 

 caballus ajricanus. I have seen many Barbs (which 



