DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



11 



cording to this view we have four types 

 or species of existing horses : The com- 

 mon horse (Equus caballus), Prejvalsky's 

 horse (Equus prejvalskii), the Thor- 

 oughbred or Libyan horse (Equus 

 libycus) and the Celtic pony. 



Asses and zebras — Belonging to the 

 same genus with the horse, we have sev- 

 eral asses and zebras which may be made 

 to interbreed with the horse, producing 

 sterile crosses or mules. In the north- 

 west part of the Gobi desert lives a wild 

 ass known as the dziggetai (Equus 

 hemionus) while the Kiang (Equus 

 hemionus kiang) thrives at high alti- 

 tudes in Tibet and Mongolia. Through- 

 out the great plains of Asia is found 



quagga (Equus quagga) which formerly 

 roamed through Cape Colony and 

 Orange River Colony is now probably 

 extinct. 



Cattle — From a geological standpoint 

 cattle are a relatively modern group of 

 animals. Their original home was in the 

 old world, probably in Asia. Represen- 

 tatives of the family Bovidse, however, 

 are now found throughout the world. 

 From fossil remains thus far discovered 

 it appears that cattle were originally 

 polled and that horns were developed 

 later, probably as a means of defense 

 against carnivora. The absence of horns 

 in certain modern breeds is therefore a 

 reversion to an earlier condition. The 



Fig. G 



■LADY SUFI 



THE TROTTING TRACK FIFTY YEARS AGO 



the onager (Equus onager) and the va- 

 riety hemippus. The African wild 

 ass (Equus asinus), the source of our 

 modern domestic ass still survives in 

 northern Africa. The Somali wild ass 

 (Equus somaliensis) is distinguished by 

 its pronounced gray color. At least 

 three species of zebras have been de- 

 scribed with numerous varietal forms. 

 They all come from Africa and it is 

 likely that they may be variations of one 

 and the same species. At present, how- 

 ever, distinction is made between the 

 Grevy, Burchell, Common, Grant, Ward, 

 Chapman and Crawshay zebras. They 

 may all be referred to the species 

 Eqv/us zebra. The closely related 



polled ox (Bos planifrons) was succeeded 

 by the aurochs (Bosf primigenius or urus) 

 from which, according to Lydekker all 

 domesticated breeds of European cat- 

 tle must trace their origin. The so- 

 called Celtic Shorthorns have been 

 referred to another supposed wild 

 species, now extinct (Bos longifrons). 

 It seems unnecessary, however, to com- 

 plicate matters with the assumption of 

 another wild species as an ancestor. 

 The half-wild, white cattle of Chilling- 

 ham and other British parks are stunted 

 descendants of a domesticated form of 

 the aurochs and are not truly wild cat- 

 tle. The aurochs was of great size, 

 standing 6 feet at the shoulder, and was 



