DOMESTIC ANIMALS 







The numerous breeds of domestic 

 pigeons are descended from the wild 

 pigeon (Columba livia) of Europe. 



ORIGIN OF FARM ANIMALS 



Horse — This subject has received 

 much attention from naturalists and 

 otbers, and a great variety of opinions 

 has prevailed. We are told by paleon- 

 tologists that the horse originated in ""die 

 new world. In support of this statement 

 a fairly satisfactory series has been 

 worked out in the ancestry of the horse 

 leading far back in the geological history 

 of the world to a five-toed ancestor about 

 the size of a rabbit. Then came the 

 three-toed ancestor of the horse and fi- 



grouped into five species. Sanson was 

 even more liberal and made eight species. 

 Pietrement practically adopted Sanson's 

 system of classification but spoke of 

 races rather than species. Then came 

 Darwin, who rejected, all these systems 

 and argued that all modern breeds of 

 horses must have descended from one 

 original wild species, on account of the 

 "fertility of the most distinct breeds 

 when crossed." This is not a final cri- 

 terion, however, for there are certain 

 species which produce fertile crosses, for 

 example the dog and wolf, cattle and 

 zebu. Nevertheless the majority of writ- 

 ers have followed Darwin in recognizing 

 only one species of horse. 



Fig. 3 OLD BLACK HORSE OF ENGLAND, SOURCE OF OUR DRAFT BREEDS 



nally all the toes became rudimentary 

 except the middle one. Most authorities 

 seem to be agreed that the horse origi- 

 nated in North and South America 

 whence it spread to Asia, Europe and 

 Africa. Subsequently, for some reason, 

 the horse became extinct in the western 

 hemisphere. All of our present breeds 

 of horses, therefore, came from the old 

 world. 



The question of how many species of 

 wild horses have been domesticated to 

 form the basis of our present breeds is 

 a vexed one. Hamilton Smith believed 

 that the modern horse breeds may be 



Recently Professor Ewart called atten- 

 tion to the constant differences between 

 Celtic ponies and other horses. The 

 Celtic pony has only minute hock cal- 

 losities and the hair on the upper part 

 of the tail is long and forms a fringe. 

 Then we have Prejvalsky's horse from 

 the deserts of central Asia. This is 

 evidently a distinct species and a true 

 wild horse. It is distinguished by a 

 short, erect mane, absence of forelock, 

 and short hair on the upper two-thirds 

 of the tail. Prejvalsky's horse is identi- 

 cal with the tarpan of older writers and 

 has freely crossed with the domestic 

 horses of the region. 



