THE COATS. 779 



very thoroughly washed. This is why the grays are so difficult to 

 specify. If they are, in fact, only a mixture of black and white, 

 whence, then, come the bluish, the purplish, the reddish, or the yel- 

 lowish shades which are found in the slate-colored, the wine-colored, 

 the reddish, the roan, the Isabella, the dirty, and the flea-bitten gray ? 

 To reply that these shades are not so many varieties, but only- peculi- 

 arities, does not solve the difficulty, for a peculiarity is a detail which 

 changes the aspect of one region alone ; it is not disseminated every- 

 where, and for the same reason does not modify the general color of the 

 coat. 



It appears to us more logical and exact to say that the gray is 

 sometimes a mixture of black and white, sometimes of white hairs 

 and those of a darker color, the latter consisting of the lighter colors, 

 such as the bay, the sorrel, or the Isabella, The extremities, the 

 mane, and the tail are always of the same nature as the coat of the 

 body. 



Brivet was quite conscious of the want of conformity of the varie- 

 ties contained in the classical definition of this coat when he wrote, 

 " The gray coat is excessively varied in its degrees ; it is a sort of 

 chaos, so many different shades of hairs are there ; it is composed of 

 all varieties : we mean to say that it borrows a little from all the 

 colors." l 



To recapitulate, two constant elements intimately mixed especially 

 characterize the gray : white hairs and hairs of a dark color. It will 

 be remarked that we intentionally use the word dark in order to in- 

 dicate that this shade may vary from the true black to the brown. 



To these elements are often added others, such as the bay, the sor- 

 rel, and the Isabella, which variegate the coat, but without taking away 

 the characteristics and the aspect which are proper to it. 



From the preceding statements, the gray coat is therefore the black, 

 the bay, the Isabella, or the sorrel, mixed with the white to a degree 

 more or less marked according to the case. This, consequently, justifies 

 the place which we have given it among the derived coats. 



In relation to its degree that is to say, its darkness and bril- 

 liancy we will recognize the following principal varieties : 



a. The very light gray, which greatly resembles the white, and 

 shows very few black or dark hairs. 



6. The light gray, not so white as the preceding and with more 

 black or dark hairs. 



1 Brivet, Nouveau traite des robes, p. 47, Paris, 1844. 



