02 HORSES. Chap. TI. 



two Chinese breeds, viz. those of Shanghai aud Amoy ; both had the 

 spinal stripe, and the latter an indistinct shoulder-stripe. 



We thus see that in all parts of the world breeds of the horse as 

 different as possible, when of a dun-colour (iacluding under this 

 term a wide range of tint from cream to dusty black), and rarely 

 when almost white tinged with yellow, grey, bay, and chestnut, have 

 the several above-specified stripes. Horses which are of a yellow 

 colour with white mane and tail, and which are sometimes called 

 duns, I have never seen with stripes.^'' 



From reasons which will be apparent in the chapter on Eeversion, 

 I have endeavoured, but with poor success, to discover whether 

 duns, which are so much oftener striped than other coloured horses, 

 are ever produced from the crossing of two horses, neither of which 

 are duns. Most persons to whom I have applied believe that one 

 parent must be dun; and it is generally asserted, that, when this is 

 the case, the dun-colour and the stripes are strongly inherited.'* 

 One case, however, has fallen under my own observation of a 

 foal from a black mare by a bay horse, which when fully grown 

 was a dark fallow-dun aud had a narrow but plain spinal 

 stripe. Hofacker '■^'^ gives two instances of mouse-duns (Mausrapp) 

 being produced from two parents of different colour's and neither 

 duns. 



The stripes of all kinds are generally plainer in the foal than in 

 the adult horse, being commonly lost at the first shedding of the 

 hair.^ Colonel Poole believes that "the stripes in the Kattywar 

 breed are plainest when the colt is first foaled ; they then become 

 less and less distinct till after the first coat is shed, when they come 

 out as strongly as before ; but certainly often fade away as the age 

 of the horse increases." Two other accounts confirm this fading of 

 the stripes in old horses in India. One writer, on the other hand, 

 states that colts are often born without strii^es, but that they appear 

 as the colt grows older. Three authorities affirm that in Norway 

 the stripes are less plain in the foal than in the adult. In the case 

 described by me of the young foal which was narrowly striped over 

 nearly all its body, there was no doubt about the early and complete 

 disappearance of the stripes. Mr. W. W. Edwards examined for 

 me twenty-two foals of race-horses, and twelve had the spinal stripe 

 more or less plain ; this fact, and some other accounts which I have 

 received, lead me to believe that the spinal stripe often disappears in 

 the English race-hor.se when old. With natural species, the young 

 often exhibit characters which disappear at maturity. 



The stripes are variable in colour, but are always darkei 

 than the rest of the body. They do not by any means always 



'' See, also, on this point, • The ^' ' Ueber die Eigenschaften,' &c., 



Field,' July 27th, 1861, p. 91. 1828, s. 13, 14. 



»» 'The Field,' 1861, pp. 431, 493 *" Von Nathusius, ' Vortrage iiber 



543. Vieh^ucht,' 1S72. 135. 



