THE HORSE FAMILY. 



57 



Asia and America, we scarcely meet with any 

 solution of the riddle. 



An illustration is furnished of the degener- 

 ate horse of Asia, the Tarpan (£". Tarpan), 

 fig. 152. These horses as well as the mus- 

 tangs of America exhibit some common char- 

 acters. The skin has acquired a uniform 

 colour, dark -brown in summer, lighter in 

 winter. The head is thick and short, the 

 neck long and slim, the ears long and pointed, 

 the hoofs delicately formed and narrow. The 

 size has diminished, and the mane, which has 

 become shorter, exhibits a decided tendency 

 to become erect ; but the tail is bushy through- 

 out its whole length. We thus see that these 

 degenerate horses have made a few steps back- 

 wards in the direction of the Tibetan wild ass; 

 but yet the distance that separates the two 

 appears to be still too great. It is possible 

 that by careful selection, by giving an abun- 

 dance of suitable food, and by constant atten- 

 tion, the domestic breeds have gradually been 

 reared out of the Tibetan wild ass; but it is 

 also possible that Quaternary horses, the 

 remains of which may some time be found in 

 Asia, have contributed to the production of 

 our domestic breeds.^ 



The domesticated horse has acquired its 

 valuable qualities chiefly by association with 

 man. Its courage must have been the quality 



' A recent discovery of Przevalsky's has a great deal of interest in 

 connection with the question of the origin of the domestic horse. 

 That traveller has made the scientific world acquainted with a horse 

 hitherto unknown inhabiting Central Asia, and possessing characters 

 more closely approaching those of the domestic horse than any mem- 

 ber of the genus hitherto discovered. The following paragraphs 

 relating to it are taken from A\ilure, vol. xxx. p. 391 (where a cut 

 of the new horse is given). 



" The horses, which constitute the genera Equus of Linnaeus, and 

 are the sole recent representatives of the family Equidas, fall natur- 

 ally into two sub-genera, as was first shown by Gray in 1825 {Zool. 

 Jour. i. p. 241) — Equus and Asinus. 



"The typical horses (Equus) are distinguishable from the asses 

 (Asiuiis) by the presence of warts upon the hind-legs as well as upon 

 the fore-legs, by their broad rounded hoofs, and by their tails begin- 

 ning to throw off long hairs from the base, instead of having these 

 hairs confined, as a sort of pencil, to the extremity of the tail. Up 

 to a recent period all the wild species of Equus known to science 

 were referable to the second of these sections, that is, to the sub- 

 genus Asiuus, known from Equus by the absence of warts or callos- 

 ities on the hind-legs, by the contracted hoofs, and by the long hairs 

 of the tail being restricted to the extremity of that organ. . . 



" Under the circumstances great interest was manifested when it 

 was known that Przevalsky, on his return from his third great jour- 

 ney into Central Asia, had brought back with him to St. Petersburg 

 Vol. II. 



which man first learned to prize. Remote 

 antiquity knew only how to employ the horse 

 in war, in which it still shines. But whatever 

 may be said, its intelligence is limited. What 

 the horse is at the present day it owes to the 

 training founded on its docility and curiosity. 



[The behaviour of wild horses in Patagonia is 

 graphically described in more than one passage by 

 Lady Florence Dixie in her account of her journey 

 across that part of the South American continent. 

 " After a time," she writes in one place, " we came 

 to a region evidently much frequented by wild 

 horses, and eventually we hit on a path worn by 

 them right through the woods, and following this, 

 we jogged along at a very fair pace. Soon our 

 horses began to neigh and prick up their ears as 

 we advanced towards a clearing. Their cries were 

 answered from somewhere beyond us, and pushing 

 forward into the open we came upon a herd of 

 wild horses, who, hearing our advance, had stopped 

 grazing, and now they stood collected in a knot 

 together, snorting and stamping, and staring at us 

 in evident amazement. One of their number came 

 boldly trotting out to meet us, and evidently with 

 no pacific intentions ; his wicked eye, and his white 

 teeth, which he had bared fiercely, looked by no 

 means reassuring. But suddenly he stopped short, 

 looked at us for a moment, and then with a wild 

 snort dashed madly away, followed by the whole 

 herd. They disappeared like lightning over the 

 brow of a deep ravine, to emerge again to our view 

 after a couple of seconds, scampering like goats up 



an example of a new species of wild horse, which belonged, in some 

 of its characters at least, to true Equus. . . . 



' ' Przevalsky's wild horse has warts on its hind-legs as well as on its 

 fore-legs, and has broad hoofs like the true horse. But the long 

 hairs of the tail, instead of commencing at the base, do not begin 

 until about half-way down the tail. In this respect Equus przevalskii 

 is intermediate between the true horse and the asses. It also differs 

 from typical Equus in having a short, erect mane, and in having no 

 forelock, that is, no bunch of hairs in front of the mane falling 

 down over the forehead. ... Its whole general colour is of a 

 whitish-gray, paler and whiter beneath, and reddish on the head. 

 The legs are reddish to the knees, and thence blackish down to the 

 hoofs. It is of small stature, but the legs are very thick and strong, 

 and the head is large and heavy. The ears are smaller than those 

 of the asses. 



"Przevalsky's wild horse inhabits the great Dsungarian Desert 

 between the Altai and Tianshan Mountains, where it is called by 

 the Tartars ' Kertag,' and by the Mongols 'Statur.' It is met with 

 in troops of from five to fifteen individuals, led by an old stallion. 

 Apparently the rest of these troops consist of mares, which all 

 belong to the single stallion. They are lively animals, very shy, 

 and with highly-developed organs of sight, hearing, and smelling. 



" They keep to the wildest part of the desert, and are very hard to 

 approach. They seem to prefer especially the saline districts, and 

 to be able to do long without water." — Tr. 



40 



