62 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



that none of the ancestral horses, or even of the 

 collateral branches of the horse-stock, were horned 

 animals. Probably it is a kind of redundant deve- 

 lopment, such as occurs in the later types of many 

 groups of animals ; seeing that the members of 

 the horse family have efficient fighting weapons 

 in their hoofs, and that they are also largely pro- 

 tected from foes by their speed. It would be 

 of great interest if it were possible to ascertain 

 whether all these "horned horses" were of Arab 

 or Barb descent. 



One other abnormality, and this an individual 

 one, may also be referred to. In the limb-bones 

 of the celebrated thoroughbred " Stockwell " (1849- 

 1876), which are exhibited in the British Museum 

 (Natural History) the projection on the hind border 

 of the femur, or thigh-bone, known as the third 

 trochanter (vide supra, p. 8) is almost obsolete ; 

 and it would be interesting to ascertain if the same 

 feature characterises the skeleton of his descendants, 

 if any of these have been preserved. It seems 

 natural to suppose that the practical absence of 

 the trochanter would have had some effect on 

 the action of Stockwell ; and it is very note- 

 worthy that in describing the sale of the Burghley 

 Stud, a writer signing himself " The Druid " states 

 in Post and Paddock, 1857, p. 296, that "Stockwell 

 came ambling out in his peculiar style, with his 

 Roman head and massive muscular points much 



