778 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



The fox-color, or fox-colored coat, called in French louvet, 

 resembles, as its English name indicates, the color of the fox ; formerly, 

 it was called color of the deer, for similar reasons. 



Vallon, 1 whose observations we have carefully analyzed, has, in our 

 opinion, given the most accurate definition of this coat. " The fox- 

 color (louvet)" says he, " is formed of two shades, the black and the 

 yellow, sometimes separated upon different hairs, but most often united 

 upon the same hair, whose base is yellow and the extremity black." We 

 will add that the mane and tail are ordinarily dark like those of the 

 burnt sorrel ; it is the same with the extremities ; in such cases the 

 latter peculiarity should always be mentioned. 



According to the predominance of the one or the other of these 

 colors this coat presents the following varieties : 



It is called light, when the yellow, more or less washed, predomi- 

 nates ; ordinary, when the yellow and black are distributed almost 

 in equal proportions ; dark, finally, when the black is in excess over 

 the yellow, itself quite intense. Horses of this color are rare. It is 

 to be remarked that after moulting they become lighter, approaching 

 the Isabella, the cream-color, and are at times almost white. Our 

 colleague, M. Saint- Yves Menard, has shown us one of them, belonging 

 to the Japanese variety of horses, which could scarcely be recognized 

 after having been clipped, because the base of the hairs was almost 

 white. 



The usual reflections of this color are the golden and the bronze. 



2. DERIVED COATS. 



We have defined these coats : those which appear after birth and 

 result from the introduction of white hairs into a primitive coat. 



They are four in number : the gray, the white, the flea-bitten, and 

 the roan. 



1st. The gray is, in our estimation, much less easily distinguished 

 than is generally supposed. Classically, it is regarded as a mixture of 

 white and black hairs. Practically, this is far from being the case. 

 All that is needed in order to convince one's self that this definition 

 is insufficient is to select at hap-hazard ten gray horses. The dark 

 hairs, first of all, are not always black ; far from it. The latter are often 

 replaced by brown, maroon, chestnut, bay, sorrel, and, more rarely, 

 yellow hairs. As to the white hairs, they are at times only the yellow 



i Vallon, Cours d'hippologie, t. i. p. 578, Paris, 1863. 



