594 
callosities (ergots) have entirely vanished ; in asses and zebras 
the ergots are always present, and in some cases still play 
the part of pads. The Celtic pony is hence not only more 
specialised—further removed from the primitive type—in its 
mane and tail, but also in having lost the fetlock pads 
(ergots) and the hock (heel) callosities. Nature makes little 
effort to get rid of useless vestiges, so long as they are 
harmless. When an ergot or a chestnut is accidentally torn 
off there is considerable loss of blood. It is conceivable 
that in the remote past horses which happened to be born 
without ergots proved better adapted for a life in the sub- 
Arctic regions—were less likely to suffer from injury when 
moving through frozen snow and to become a prey to 
wolves—and hence had a better chance of surviving and 
leaving descendants.’ 
There is also evidence of specialisation in the teeth of the 
Celtic pony. In many horses—e.g. the horses of south- 
eastern Asia—the canines and upper first premolars (wolf 
teeth) are well developed, but in the Celtic pony the first 
premolars seem to be invariably absent, while the canines are 
either absent or very minute even in old males. In all the 
typical Celtic ponies I have seen the head is small, Arab- 
like in outline, and well put on to a relatively long neck ; 
the muzzle is fine and slightly arched, the under lip short 
and well moulded, the nostrils are wide, and the eyes on 
a level with the forehead, while the ears are short, white- 
tipped, and carried as a rule in an upright position. Owing 
to the shortness of the jaws the proportion of the head to® 
the body is as 1 to 2-50 instead of 1 to 2-20, as in the wild 
herse. 
Except in size I have been unable to discover any differ- 
ence between the skeleton and teeth of the Celtic pony and 
those of the small horse of the ‘‘ elephant bed’ of the 
Brighton Pleistocene. In the most northern part of Iceland, 
where the few pure specimens of the Celtic pony survive, only 
a height of 12 hands (48 inches) is reached—under more 
favourable conditions the height would probably be 50 or 
52 inches, the size of some of the ‘‘ elephant-bed ’’ horses 
and of the smaller variety of the desert-bred Arab, to which 
the small slender-limbed occidental pony closely approxi- 
“nates. 
In temperament the Celtic pony is very different from the 
wild horse. Captain Hayes had no difficulty in handling 
the wild horse in my possession, but from first to last, 
though giving evidence of marked intelligence, it was abso- 
lutely irresponsive and spiritless. A Celtic pony, on the 
cther hand, rapidly learns what the trainer wishes and re- 
sponds with alacrity. In its keenness and speed, staying 
power and agility, a pure Celtic pony is as different from 
an ordinary heavy-headed Iceland pony (t.e. a dwarf horse) 
as an Arab is from a cart-horse. 
The question may now be asked, Is my most typical Celtic 
pony a pure or nearly pure specimen of a once widely dis- 
tributed wild species, or is it at most an approximation to 
an ideal type, living representatives of which no longer 
exist? I regard the pony described above as an almost pure 
representative of a once widely distributed wild species, for 
the following reasons :—(1) In its colour and markings it 
is almost identical with Prjevalsky’s horse, and not unlike 
some of the varieties of the wild Asiatic ass. (2) The hind 
chestnuts and all four ergots are completely absent. (3) The 
tail-lock is perfectly adapted for its work—were the hairs 
shorter the fringe would be ineffective, were they longer 
the snow-shield, if ever formed, would rapidly disintegrate. 
(4) The first premolars are completely absent, and only one 
of the four canines is represented, and that only by a 
minute peg which barely projects beyond the gum. ~ (5) 
The pony in question proved sterile with stallions belonging 
to five different breeds, as well as with a Burchell zebra 
and a kiang; but she at once bred when mated with a 
yellow-dun Connemara-Welsh pony, which closely approxi- 
mates to the Celtic type. (6) Ponies having the more 
striking Celtic characteristics occur in isolated and out- 
lying areas, where one would expect to find remnants of an 
ancient highly specialised species which perchance reached 
the Old World from the New in pre-Glacial times or during 
warm inter-Glacial periods—in, e.g., Iceland (which has 
been almost completely since the twelfth or 
1 If, as seems likely, the absence of ergots (ze. of spurs in the centre of 
the footlocks) is ‘an advantage in arid regions. such as the Libyan plateau, 
we can understand their frequent absence in Barbs and Arabs. 
NO. 1799, VOL. 69] 
isolated 
NATURE 
[APRIL 21, 1904 
thirteenth century), the Farée Islands, Shetland, the | 
Hebrides, the west of Ireland, and Finland. 
Flat-nosed Variety of the Celtic Pony.—In the Fzrées, | 
the Hebrides, and in Shetland there are slender-limbed 
ponies whith, except in their colour and the shape of the 
head, and in some cases the form of the hind-quarters, | 
closely agree with my typical Celtic pony. In these ponies 
the depression below the eyes is more pronounced, and | 
extends well-nigh to the muzzle, which is nearly flat. The | 
nostrils look downwards, and the space between them, in- 
stead of being arched as in the Iceland’ specimen, is flat, and 
forms nearly a right angle with the face. 
Some of these flat-nosed ponies are of a foxy-red colour, | 
others are dark brown. According to Landt, the majority | 
of the Farde ponies a century ago were foxy-red—the St. 
Kilda ponies, eighteen in all, seen by Martin at the end 
of the seventeenth century, were also of a red colour—the 
others were with few exceptions dark. A foxy-red Feroe 
pony in my possession has neither a dorsal band nor bars. 
on the leg, but it has a light mane and tail, a nearly straight 
croup, and well formed hind-quarters. All the other foxy- 
red Faroe ponies I have seen or heard of closely resemble 
the one in my collection. 
The dark Fzerée ponies, like the dark Barra ponies, only 
differ from the foxy-red ponies in not having in every case 
a straight croup and a high set-on tail, while the dark 
variety of the Celtic pony found in Shetland is in build 
more like the typical Iceland specimens than the Ferde 
variety. 
Herodotus (v.q.) says of the horses of the Sigynna—the 
only tribe he knew the name of across the Danube—they 
““are shaggy all over the body, to five fingers in depth of 
hair: they are small, flat-nosed, and unable to carry men; 
but when yoked to chariots they are very fleet, therefore 
the natives drive chariots.’’ This description, so far as it 
goes, is singularly accurate of the foxy-red Faerée ponies, 
even to their being very fleet ‘‘ when yoked to chariots.’” 
It is extremely probable that in the red coloured Faroe 
ponies we have a remnant of a very old and once widely 
distributed variety, the origin of which is never likely to ~ 
be revealed. For some unaccountable reason the silver 
mane and tail are as a rule either handed on untarnished 
to cross-bred offspring or they reappear in the second or 
one of the subsequent generations. It is hence possible 
that various large breeds—such as the Suffolk Punch, the 
white-maned horses of the Hebrides and of the north and 
west of Ireland, certain silver-maned Hungarian and 
Russian races, not to mention Chittabob and other English 
thoroughbreds—have all inherited their light manes and 
tails from an ancient foxy-red variety of the Celtic pony. 
The origin of the dark brown variety of the Celtic pony 
is also wrapped in mystery. these dark brown ponies may 
represent another old variety from which the Exmoors have 
sprung—a variety which has contributed the tan-coloured 
muzzle and the ring round the eye so characteristic of many 
of the best Highland and Island garrons. One of these 
dark brown ponies, brought from Barra as a two-year-old, 
looked for a time like a miniature thoroughbred. Now as 
a three-year-old it might pass for one of the oldest and 
best type of the dark FzerGe ponies. Neither the dark nor 
the red Faer6e ponies ever possess all the Celtic character- 
istics; at the most they are three parts pure, and I may 
add they cross freely with Norwegian and other breeds, 
generally transmitting such Celtic ‘‘ points’’ as they 
possess to their mixed offspring.’ It is worthy of note that 
in some of the small-headed horses engraved in the Com- 
barelles and other caves inhabited in Palzolithic times, the 
croup is straight and the tail set on high as in many 
Arabs; in others the tail, instead of being in a line with 
the croup, looks as if it had been an afterthought—an 
appendage inserted fairly well up in some cases, lower 
down in others, as is the case in many large and small 
horses with rounded quarters. In the engravings showing 
a small-headed horse with a straight croup we seem to 
have the foxy-red variety represented; in those with some- 
what drooping quarters we may have a representation of 
the dark brown variety of the Celtic pony. : 
If one may judge from its specialisation and from its 
being now adapted for sub-Arctic conditions, the Celtic pony 
belongs to a variety which at a very remote period branched - 
1 See Marshall and Annandale, Pec. Cam. Phil. Soc , vol. xii. part iv. 
