140 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



The Boulonnais breed, from the Boulogne 

 district and the adjacent parts of Belgium, is a 

 rather larger and coarser type than the Percheron, 

 the neck being especially heavy, the rump steeper 

 and more squared, and the colour frequently grey 

 or white. The action is less free than in the 

 Percheron. In Brittany the size of the draught- 

 horses runs smaller, the normal height of the Breton 

 breed being only from 14 to 1^^ hands. Like the 

 Percheron, to which they are allied, these horses 

 are often grey, although bay is more common than 

 among the former. They have been largely crossed 

 with other breeds. 



Of less importance is the Nivernais, of the 

 department of Nievre, in Central France, which 

 is now mainly a black breed produced by crossing 

 the native stock with Percheron stallions. 



Visitors on landing at Antwerp or other Belgian 

 ports can scarcely fail to be struck with the intelli- 

 gence, docility, and enormous power of the draught- 

 horses employed on the quays. These horses 

 (pi. xiii. fig. 2) belong to the Belgian breed, which is 

 also used in the country for agricultural work, and 

 appears to be of great antiquity ; Belgium having 

 been noted as a horse-breeding country since the 

 time of Diodorus Siculus, in the first century B.C. 

 There is a certain amount of local variation in 

 the height of this breed, the largest being the 

 Flemish strain, in which it reaches from i6|^ to 



