APRIL 21, 1904] 
NATURE 
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off from the main stem and possibly reached Europe and 
North Africa long before the advent of the Neoliths—to 
become the progenitors not only of occidental but also of 
African races.* 
As might have been anticipated, Celtic characters can 
often be identified in British and other occidental breeds. 
Many thoroughbreds, which are an unequal blend of Barbs 
and of Arabs in which Eastern races often prevail, and of 
light and heavy occidental varieties, show traces of Celtic 
ancestors. Many small thoroughbreds “‘ ride like a pony,” 
or have a pony head, or pony legs, some even want the 
ergots or hind chestnuts, or the tail has a vestige of a 
fringe, or there is the gait and temperament, alertness and 
intelligence of the pony. Many of the Highland garrons 
have pony characteristics, and this is also true of all the 
old mountain and moorland breeds, more especially of the 
mealy-nosed Exmoor ponies and some of the better bred 
dun-coloured Connemaras. 
Even in Clydesdales of the older type pony characters 
sometimes surge to the surface, while in cross-bred animals 
they sometimes predominate. Recently I heard of a 
powerful active 17-hands horse—with a wonderful reputa- 
tion for speed, strength, and staying power—in tvhich the 
hind chestnuts, greatly to the surprise of the owner, were 
completely absent. On making inquiries as to the pedigree 
of this horse, I ascertained he was bred in Caithness, and 
was the grandson of a Highland pony. 
Tue Norse Horse (Equus caballus typicus). 
During prehistoric times in certain parts of Europe a 
tundra fauna gave place to a steppe fauna, which later was 
succeeded by a forest fauna. Evidence of this succession 
we especially have in the rock-shelter at Schweizersbild, near 
Schaffhausen. In the lower deposits the remains of the 
reindeer, musk-ox, variable hare, Arctic fox, and other 
tundra forms occurred. Nearer the surface were relics of 
hamsters, the woolly rhinoceros, kiang, horse, and other 
denizens of the steppes; and on still higher layers the bones 
of the beaver, hare, and squirrel, the badger, pine martin, 
and wild boar, the stag, roedeer, urus, horse, and other 
recognised members of a true forest fauna. 
In the case of the Equide it is often extremely difficult 
to determine to which species any given bones belong, and 
hence it is impossible to state definitely that the horses 
found along with the hamsters and other steppe forms 
essentially differed from those which were contemporaries 
of the stag and wild boar and other typical forest forms. 
It may, however, be assumed that even in post-Glacial 
times the majority of the inhabitants of the steppes would 
when mature be quite or nearly whole coloured, while fre- 
quenters of the forests would as often be either striped or 
spotted—that, e.g., the horse which frequented the Rhine 
valley along with the kiang and woolly rhinoceros would 
resemble the wild horse (EZ. c. prjevalskii) which, with the 
kkiang, now lives in the vicinity of the Great Altai Moun- 
tains, while the horse which at a subsequent period was a 
contemporary of the wild boar, stag, and roedeer would 
be more or less richly striped, and in its limbs and general 
conformation adapted for a life in or near forests. 
That there is some ground for this assumption will, I 
think, be admitted when due consideration is given to results 
obtained by crossing various kinds of horses with a Burchell 
zebra. When ponies of the Celtic type—i.e. ponies which 
in their colour are identical with Prjevalsky’s horse, almost 
certainly the lineal descendant of the steppe horse of Palao- 
lithic times—are crossed with a male Burchell zebra, hybrids 
are obtained which, while in build strongly suggesting a 
Burchell zebra, are as profusely striped as the great zebra 
of Somaliland—have at least five times as many transverse 
stripes across the trunk as occur in their zebra sire. When, 
1 That the Celtic pony is akin to the smaller high-caste Arabs has already 
been hinted. The only fundamental difference, apart from the coat, mane, 
and tail, between many small Arabs and a Celtic pony is in the ears: in the 
Arab they are long and often incurved at the points. The long ears 
of the Arab may either be due to Eastern blood of the Kattiawar kind or to 
long ears being an advantage to the wild ancestors that frequented the great 
Libyan plateau, as long ears are of advantage to the mountain zebra, and to 
the kangaroo of the Australian bush. About the origin of the large varieties 
of Arabs provided with ergots, with hind chestnuts like those of Prjevalsky’s 
horse, a somewhat long head, a tendency to'a Roman nose, large joints, 
and a circumference of 7} to 8 inches below the knee, I am unable to offer 
an opinion. 
NO. 1799, VOL. 69] 
however, pony mares of the Norwegian type are crossed 
with a Burchell zebra, the hybrids resemble in make their 
Norse dams, and in their markings closely approximate 
the common or mountain zebra. The explanation of these 
remarkable differences seems to be that in the case of the 
Celtic pony hybrids the remote (Grévy-like) ancestors of 
the Burchell zebra control the development and determine 
the plan of the decoration, while in the case of the Norse 
pony hybrids the remote striped-horse ancestors contribute 
the more obvious characters—the Norse ponies having more 
influence in determining the plan of striping than the highly 
specialised Celtic ponies, from which stripes had probably 
all but completely disappeared countless generations before 
they began to fade on the horses which belonged to the 
forest fauna. 
It is probable that the highly specialised Celtic pony, as 
well as the primitive Gobi wild horse, belong to the steppe 
fauna, and it is equally probable that the yellow-dun (Fjord) 
horse, in which a striped coat may be said to be latent, 
belongs to the forest fauna. If this be admitted, it follows 
that the environment of the Norse race has been for untold 
ages so different from that of the Celtic pony and the wild 
horse that it centuries ago acquired the rank of a distinct 
species, or at least a well marked natural variety. 
The question now arises, Does there exist in any of the 
outlying parts of the world (where artificial selection has 
been made use of to conserve old rather than to create new 
types) horses of a red rather than of a yellow-dun colour 
—more like the red deer than the kiang—horses with a 
sufficient number of imperfect stripes on the body and bars 
on the legs to indicate descent from ancestors decorated 
after the manner of the mountain zebra? As is now 
generally known, dun-coloured horses with remnants of a 
striped coat now and again make their appearance in all 
parts of both the Old and New World. It is also a matter 
of common knowledge that dark yellow-dun horses, some- 
times with fragments of numerous stripes, are always to be 
met with in, amongst other places, Mongolia, Tibet, the 
North-West Provinces of India (especially in the State of 
Kattiawar), and in the north-west of Europe, more especially 
in Norway, the Highlands and islands of Scotland, and in 
Iceland. With the exception of the Kattiawars, which, 
probably as the result of rigid selection, stand apart, all 
the others have many points in common—some of the dun 
Mongol ponies agreeing closely with Norwegians—but they 
all—the Kattiawars more than the rest—decidedly differ from 
E. c. prjevalskii, the wild horse of the Great Altai Moun- 
tains, and from typical specimens of the light yellow-dun 
Celtic pony. 
The most richly striped horses I have hitherto come across 
occur in the north-west of Scotland. One of these recently 
examined is alike in make, colour, and markings so unique, 
and looks so little modified by domestication and artificial 
selection, that it must, I think, be considered as a fairly 
typical specimen of a once wild species. The history of the 
yellow-dun striped race, to which the specimen alluded 
to belongs, has not yet been written, but there is little 
doubt that it was introduced into Scotland from Scandinavia 
about the end of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth 
century. As this yellow-dun striped race may very well 
have been familiar to Linnzeus, it may, I think, be taken 
as the type of the large occidental breeds, and known as 
the Equus caballus typicus. A typical specimen of the 
Norse variety is of a dark yellow-dun colour, with black 
‘yoints ’ and a nearly black mane and tail. The mane is 
long and heavy, and tends to fall to both sides of the neck 
as in the Celtic pony. Only a few hairs at the root of 
the tail are shed in summer, and there is no attempt to 
form a tail-lock in winter, while the footlocks, never very 
long, are limited to the region of the ergots. The fore- 
head is decorated with narrow stripes, which in their number 
and arrangement agree more with the mountain than with 
the true Burchell zebra. A broad dorsal band extends along 
the back to lose itself in the tail; there are stripes on the 
neck, and faint stripes extend a short distance from the 
dorsal band across the body, as in the British Museum 
quagga; while the legs, especially in the region of the 
“tenees ’’ and hocks, are marked by distinct bars. 
The ears are short and are carried in a nearly upright 
position; the forehead (which is not particularly wide), in 
having two ridges extending upwards from the prominent 
