WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 109 



the majority going direct to Shanghai, although some 

 are sold en route at Pekin and Tientsin. Accord- 

 ing to a writer in the Field newspaper of April 8th, 

 191 1, "they are sold principally to the large race- 

 owners for comparatively big prices, and are kept 

 and trained for the races. As these ponies have 

 to be bought without any trial entirely on their 

 looks, with shaggy coats and totally unacquainted 

 with the proper use of a brush, many are soon 

 found to be hardly fast enough for racing purposes. 

 Sometimes, however, the weirdest-looking proves 

 himself to be very fast, while some of the good- 

 looking ones turn out badly." 



The aforesaid variability in the colour of Mon- 

 golian ponies, and the comparative rarity of dun, 

 seem to indicate that they are not pure derivatives 

 from the tarpan ; the same thing being, perhaps, 

 indicated by the luxuriant hair of the mane and 

 tail. According to Professor Ridgeway^ such colour- 

 differences are known to have been in existence 

 so early as the second century B.C. The mare 

 represented in plate viii. fig. i is one of the 

 dark types of Mongolian ponies. Although 

 most of the so-called Chinese ponies are really 

 Mongolian, the southern provinces of China do 

 produce a native breed of pony, which appears to 

 be nearly allied to those of Anam, Siam, and 

 Burma (mentioned below), but is very small, 



^ The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 1 32. 



