292 THE BOOK OI^THE ANIMAL KINGDOM 



blackish. Now, it is often held and we have no reason to doubt 

 the truth of the assertion-^that the younger a domesticated animal 

 is the more closely it resembles the wild ancestor of the species. If 

 we admit the truth of this proposition, then we see at once why 

 the majority of foals are light bay or dun in their * baby ' coat. No 

 matter whether they are going to be grey, rich bay, or light brown 

 in later life their foal coat is usually a dun colour, and their mane 

 and tail shade to black-brown, like those of Prejevalski's Horse. In 

 two important points, however, no resemblance can be drawn 

 between the Wild Horse and the foal, and those are in the carriage 

 of the mane and in the colour of the legs. The mane of every foal 

 is erect like that of a Zebra or Ass, and, as one might be led from 

 analogy to surmise, presumably like that of its wild ancestor also. 

 There is no forelock. In the Prejevalski's Horse, however, it will 

 be seen that the mane is too long to remain erect like that of a foal, 

 and that it falls between the ears into a decided forelock like the 

 ' bad ' mane of many British Hill Ponies. The legs of most foals 

 are creamy white, like those of the Onager, and without the darkness 

 in the knee and hock regions and down the canon bones shown by 

 Prejevalski's Horse, which only comes with the second coat. These 

 differences incidentally afford somewhat strong proof in favour of 

 a feral origin of these ugly desert Horses. 



"It always used to be supposed that the wild ancestor of domestic 

 Horses was ornamented wkh a black dorsal stripe, some horizontal 

 stripes about the knees and hocks, and perhaps one or more shoulder 

 bars on an otherwise yellow coat. This opinion was arrived at by 

 the facts that so-called reversionary dun-coloured individuals pro- 

 duced by a process of mongrelization were generally so marked; 

 that breeds of dun Ponies which exist in various parts of the world 

 are usually so adorned; and that the dorsal band persists occasion- 

 ally in Horses of other colours than dun. In the Central Asian 

 Horse the markings are either entirely absent or are much fainter 

 and less well defined than they usually are in dun-coloured British 

 Horses. This fact again suggests that the Wild Horses are not 

 entitled to be raised to the dignity of specific rank as they lack 

 uniformity in a well-defined particular. Were they the descendants 

 of an ordinary unstriped domesticated Horse it is not difficult to 

 understand how a point of practical unimportance like the one under 

 consideration might have failed to be reproduced in all the 

 individuals of a feral race. 



