THE HORSE AND HIS PEDIGREE. 151 



a small dun Welsh pony had actually as many as 

 three stripes, thus closely approaching the ty[)e of 

 coloration that prevails universally in Burchell's 

 zebra. It is impossible not to regard these curi- 

 ous facts as indications that our modern horses 

 are ultimately derived from a more or less regu- 

 larly striped and banded zebra-like ancestor. In 

 the case of mules, indeed, we get an excellent 

 opportunity of testing the reality of this hypothet- 

 ical conclusion ; for the mule is the offspring of 

 the ass and the mare, and as such might naturally 

 be expected to reproduce in its own person the 

 primitive features of their common ancestor. 

 Now, as a matter of fact, mules have almost always 

 barred legs, and some of them have the bars quite 

 as distinctly marked as on the hind-legs of a moun- 

 tain zebra ; tiiey are also sometimes banded on 

 the back and shoulders. In the young mule par- 

 ticularly, the stripes and bars are very common, 

 and in tlie warmer parts of America — where the 

 climate closely resembles that of their original 

 sub-tropical home — these reversionary markings 

 are almost universal. 



The divergence of the true horse from the ass 

 group is a still later and, we might almost say, 

 historical event. Donkeys and their congeners 

 differ mainly, as is well known, from the true 

 horses in the fact that their tail is comparatively 

 hairless in the upper part, with a tuft or brush of 



