56 HORSES. Chap. IT. 



circumstance may perhaps partly account for the singular 

 fact that to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal,^^ over an 

 enormous and humid area, in Ava, Pegu, Siam, the Malayan 

 archipelago, the Loo Choo Islands, and a large part of 

 China, no full-sized horse is found. When we advance as 

 far eastward as Japan, the horse reacquires his full size.^* 



W ith most of our domesticated animals, some breeds are 

 kept on account of their curiosity or beauty ; but the horse 

 is valued almost solely for its utility. Hence semi-monstrous 

 breeds are not preserved ; and probably all the existing 

 breeds have been slowly formed either by the direct action 

 of the conditions of life, or through the selection of individual 

 differences. Ko doubt semi-monstrous breeds might have 

 been formed : thus Mr. Waterton records -^ the case of a mare 

 which produced successively three foals withoiit tails ; so 

 that a tailless race might have been formed like the tailless 

 races of dogs and cats. A Eussian breed of horses is said to 

 have curled hair, and Azara -•' relates that in Paraguay 

 horses are occasionally born, but are generally destroyed, 

 with hair like that on the head of a negro ; and this pecu- 

 liarity is transmitted even to half-breeds : it is a curious 

 case of correlation that such horses have short manes and 

 tails, and their hoofs are of a peculiar shape like those of 

 a mule. 



It is scarcely jjossible to doubt that the long-continued 

 selection of qualities serviceable to man has been the chief 

 agent in the formation of the several breeds of the horse. 

 Look at a dray-horse, and see how well adapted he is to draw 

 heavy weights, and how unlike in apjaearance to any allied 

 wild animal. The English race-horse is known to be de- 

 rived from the commingled blood of Arabs, Turks, and 

 Barbs ; but selection, which was carried on during very early 



^' Mr. J. H. Moor, ' Notices of the Service Institution,' vol. iv. 



Indian Archipelago ;' Singapore, 1837, ^'' ' Essays on Natural History,' 2nd 



p. 189. A pony from Java was sent series, p. 161. 



('Athenaeum,' 1842, p. 718) to the ^^ 'Quadrupe'des du Paraguay,' 



Queen only 28 inches in height. For torn. ii. p. 333. Dr. Canfield informs 



the Loo Choo Islands, see Beechey's me that a breed with curly hair was 



' Voyage,' 4th edit., vol. i. p. 499. formd by selection at Los Angeles in 



^* J. Crawford, ' History of the North America. 

 Horse • ' ' Journal of Royal United 



