THE HORSE FAMILY. 



49 



on getting an affirmative answer I told him to 

 pass it over to me, and propping myself up against 

 the trunk to prevent myself being knocked down, 

 for it was an elephant-gun of six to the pound, I 

 aimed at the shoulder of the trampling and squeal- 

 ing beast and pulled the trigger. A stillness fol- 

 lowed the report for a second, and then a heavy 

 thud, and after that violent struggles on the ground. 

 The other hunter had a double-barrel, and emptied 

 both of them into the struggling mass below him; 

 but despite the shots the brute regained its legs, 

 and went away the moment after it did so, its 

 vicious temper much sobered by the treatment it 

 had received. Ours were not, however, improved 

 by the incident, and it was all I could do to pre- 

 vent one of the hunters, who was almost speechless 

 with rage at losing his supper, from giving chase 

 on the spot. ... A shoulder of antelope was 

 not much among four famished men."] 



Another African species {^Rh. simus) is the 

 largest of all. The head is very long, the 

 snout rounded like that of an ox, the front 

 horn very large, a yard and more in length, 

 the hinder one very small. This species fre- 

 quents the steppes covered with tall grass, 

 amidst which it often grazes in very numer- 

 ous herds, and in the dry seasons it under- 

 takes great journeys in search of water. 

 This species, notwithstanding its superior size, 

 is regarded as the most good-natured of all. 

 It is hunted chiefly for its flesh, which appears 

 to be excellent. 



THE HORSE FAMILY 



(EQUID.^). 



In our present fauna this family forms a 

 group so well characterized by the structure 

 of the feet, and so natural, that if only the 

 living types are taken into consideration one 

 is perfectly justified in making a separate 

 order out of them under the name of Solidun- 

 gula, the single-hoofed. But the distinctions, 

 seemingly so sharply defined, gradually dis- 

 appear when we place the forms that have 

 lived in earlier times side by side with the 

 living ones. The feet provided with a single 

 hoof are then seen to be the last stage in a 



Vol. n. 



process of evolution in course of which there 

 first appeared forms which had feet like the 

 rhinoceroses and tapirs, and in which the 

 general characters of the Perissodactyla are 

 revealed with so much clearness and distinct- 

 ness that it is impossible to assign a greater 

 value to the equine type than that of a family. 

 The horse is the last member in a series of 

 forms due to a process of specialization gov- 

 erned by the tendency to transform many-toed 

 and comparatively sluggish, heavily -built 

 animals into runners, which do not yield in 

 fleetness to any other forms. The feet are 

 simplified by this process to the highest 

 degree, and are modified so as to be adapted 

 solely for running. If we adopt the stand- 

 point which it has been our constant aim to 

 maintain in this work with respect to the 

 evolution theory, we must regard the Solid- 

 ungula as the type of a highly-specialized 

 family. 



We all know the general characters of the 

 horses, zebras, and asses which make up this 

 family. The greatly -elongated head with 

 straight profile and sharp -pointed ears, the 

 long neck, the relatively short body borne 

 on long slender legs, the feet ending in 

 rounded hoofs, the tail of moderate length 

 bearing a long brush composed of coarse hair, 

 the mane of bristly hair on the neck, the 

 covering of finer short hair on the body lying 

 very thick but so closely applied to the skin 

 that the most minute details of the form are 

 visible; all these characters are such as the 

 reader does not need to be reminded of. 

 The feet with only a single hoof enable us 

 to recognize at the first glance the not very 

 numerous species of this family which are 

 now found wild only in the Old World. As 

 domestic animals the horses have not only 

 reconquered the domains which they formerly 

 inhabited, but have spread over the entire 

 surface of the earth save only the extreme 

 Polar regions. 



The skull of the horses when seen from 

 above strikes us by its narrow greatly-elon- 



39 



