332 NATURE 
[AucustT 3, 1899 
represented as upright, but as lying to one side. If the mane 
had remained erect during the first two years, by virtue of 
shedding its hairs, it could not very well have lost this habit 
and fallen completely over to one side subsequently, say, during 
the fourth year. From the mane being erect in 1820, and 
hanging to one side in 1821 or 1822, when Agassé’s drawing 
was made, the presumption is that the mane of the ‘‘colts” 
had been cut some time before they were examined by Lord 
Morton. 
Two years ago I had a bay Arab with a mane which was to 
start with short, stiff and upright ; some months later it arched 
freely to one side, as in my zebra hybrids, and later still it hung 
lank and close to the neck. 
(3) There is always an intimate relation in the Equidze between 
the mane and the tail; when the mane is short and erect the 
upper third or so of the tail is only covered with short hairs, 
which, like the hairs of the mane, are annually shed. Lord 
Morton noticed nothing peculiar about the tail of the ‘‘ colts,” 
and the tail of both the colt and filly in Agassé’s drawings is the 
tail of a high-caste Arab. This seems to me to warrant the con- 
clusion that the filly’s mane had been hogged some time before 
Lord Morton’s visit. 
It thus appears that the evidence in support of the belief that 
Lord Morton’s mare was ‘‘ infected” by the quagga is at the 
‘best far from satisfactory. The same may be said of the evidence 
in support of all the other supposed cases of telegony in the 
Equidze—of, amongst others, Lord Mostyn’s mare, referred to 
‘by Darwin (‘‘ Animals and Plants,” vol. i. p. 435, 1875) 3 of 
the mule-like mare in the Paris Gardens, referred to by Teget- 
meier and Sutherland (‘‘ Horses, Asses and Zebras,” p. 81) ; 
and of the African ass (Zguzs asénus), still in the Zoological 
Gardens (London), which now and then has a reddish-coloured 
foal, like the cross-bred foal she produced in 1883 to an Asiatic 
ass (2. hemionus). 
Although I am now satisfied that Lord Morton’s case throws 
little light on the telegony hypothesis, like many others I had 
no very decided views on the subject some years ago, and hence 
when arranging in 1894 to make a collection of horse embryos, 
I decided to repeat, as far as circumstances permitted, what is 
‘commonly called Lord Morton’s experiment. For this purpose 
I procured early in 1895 three zebras and a number of mares. 
Two of the zebras died during the winter of 1895, but the third 
—a handsome stallion of the Chapman variety (2. durched/d v. 
chapmanz)—still survives and is now thoroughly acclimatised. 
During 1895 I only succeeded in mating the zebra with one 
mare, and hence there was only one hybrid born in 1896. 
During the last two years, however, quite a number of hybrids 
have made their appearance, and the dams of several of the 
hybrids have subsequently produced pure-bred foals. The time 
has hence come when some of the results of the experiments may 
with propriety be communicated to the Royal Society. 
“STI, Experiments with West Highland Ponies.’ By Lord 
Arthur Cectl, Orchardmains, Kent, and J. C. Ewart. 
The first mare mated with the zebra was a black West High- 
land pony (Mulatto), set apart for the telegony experiments by 
Lord Arthur Cecil. The better bred West Highland ponies are 
supposed to have descended from ‘‘ Armada” horses, and are 
hence perhaps related to Mexican and Argentine horses, so often 
dun-coloured and partially striped. Mulatto’s hybrid (Romulus, 
born August 12, 1896) is, on the whole, more a zebra than a 
pony both mentally and physically. He is especially remark- 
able in being more profusely striped than his sire (the zebra 
Matopo) in having a heavy semi-erect mane, which is shed 
annually, and in having a mule-like tail from the upper third 
of which the longer hairs are periodically shed. The body 
colour of the hybrid varies from a dark orange colour to a 
mouse-dun ; the stripes, of a reddish-brown colour, on the head 
are dark brown or nearly black on the trunk and limbs. 
In the number and plan of the stripes, the hybrid agrees 
more closely with the Somali zebra than with any of the 
Burchell zebras. Over the brow, e.g. there are narrow rounded 
arches instead of somewhat broad pointed arches as in his sire, 
the neck and trunk have quite double the number of stripes 
found in the sire, while over the croup in the position of the 
“gridiron” of the mountain zebra there were at birth irregular 
rows of spots, which in course of time blended to form some- 
what zig-zag, narrow, transverse bands. The ears are nearly 
as large as in the sire, while the eyelashes are longer and dis- 
tinctly curved. In his movements the hybrid resembles his 
NO. 1553, VOL. 60] 
sire, and like his sire he is always on the alert, very active 
and suspicious of unfamiliar objects. Further, in his call he 
agrees far more with his sire than his dam. In being profusely 
striped, Romulus differs greatly from the quagga hybrid bred 
by Lord Morton, in which the stripes were fewer in number 
than in many dun-coloured horses. 
Mulatto’s second foal arrived in July 1897, the sire, Benazrek, 
being a high-caste grey Arab horse. Like Lord Morton’s colts, 
Mulatto’s foal by the Arab horse, in make, action and tempera- 
ment, agreed with ordinary foals, but it differed from the majority 
of foals in presenting quite a number of zzdéstzct stripes— 
subtle markings only visible in certain lights. These stripes 
differed but little from the body colour, which varied from dark 
bay to brown. Though few references have been made to the 
occurrence of stripes in foals, they are, we find, far from un- 
common. As is well known, Mr. Darwin once bred a striped 
foal by putting a cross-bred bay mare to a thoroughbred horse. 
This foal was tor a time marked nearly all over with obscure 
dark narrow stripes, plainest on the forehead, but also distinct 
over the croup (‘‘ Animals and Plants,” vol. i. p. 60). 
There is no figure of Mr. Darwin's striped foal, but from the 
description given there can be little doubt that the markings 
were more abundant than in Mulatto’s second foal. In this 
foal (as in Mr. Darwin’s) the stripes became more and more in- 
distinct, and by November they had almost vanished. Unfortu- 
nately the foal died when about five months old, and hence it 
is impossible to say whether any of the stripes would have per- 
sisted. It will be evident that Mulatto’s second foal helped but 
little to clear up the vexed ‘‘infection ” problem. Mulatto 
missed having a foal in 1898, but she recently produced at Knole, 
Kent, her third foal. The sire (Loch Corrie) of this foal belongs 
to the Island of Rum section of the West Highland ponies, and 
closely resembles Mulatto. The third foal has about as many 
stripes as the second. As in the second, they are most distinct 
over the croup and hind-quarters; and as in the second, they 
differ both from the markings in the previous sire, the zebra, 
and from the markings on the hybrid Romulus. 
This third foal, which was born on May 6, 1899, seemed, 
like the second, to lend some support to the ‘‘infection” 
hypothesis. Fortunately, since it made its appearance, two 
other West Highland mares have had foals to Loch Corrie. 
These foals put all doubt as to the nature and significance of the 
stripes on Mulatto’s second and third foals at an end. 
One of the dams is of a brown colour, the other is nearly 
black. Though neither the brown dam nor the black has ever 
seen a zebra, both foals are marked in very much the same way 
as Mulatto’s, and some of the stripes in one of the new foals look 
more like persisting than the stripes on Mulatto’s third foal. 
Hence, in order to account for the markings on Mulatto’s foal to 
the grey Arab, and on her foal to the black West Highland pony, 
it is unnecessary to fall back on the ‘‘ infection” hypothesis. 
“TIT. Experiments with Shetland, Iceland, Trish, Thorough- 
bred and oiher Pontes.” By J. C. Ewart. 
An effort was made to cross four Shetland ponies with the 
zebra stallion, but I only succeeded in obtaining one hybrid. 
The dam (Nora) of this hybrid closely resembles, except in size, 
the Island of Rum ponies—she is a small edition of Mulatto. 
Her first foal, by a black Shetland pony, was of a dun colour, 
and nearly as striped as Sir Gore Ouseley’s filly ; her second is 
the most zebra-like of all my hybrids ; her third closely resembles 
her sire, a bay Welsh pony. For some time after birth there 
were faint indications of stripes over the hind-quarters of this 
foal, but now it is a year old there are no markings or any other 
suggestions of a zebra. It is not a little suggestive that the 
foal bred from this pony before she was mated with the zebra 
was distinctly striped, while the subsequent pure bred foal has 
no stripes. 
Of five Iceland ponies put to the zebra only one produced a 
hybrid. This hybrid was faintly striped, and showed less of 
the zebra than any of the others. The dam, a prepotent yellow 
and white (skewbald) pony, had first of all a light bay foal toan 
Iceland pony. Her third foal, by a bay Shetland stallion, is a 
skewbald, and in the size and arrangement of the brown patches 
closely resembles the dam. There is no hint whatever that the 
Iceland pony has been ‘‘ infected” by the zebra. 
Several Irish mares were put to the zebra, and two of them 
(bays) have first produced hybrids and subsequently pure bred 
foals. A cream-coloured Irish-Canadian mare unfortunately 
died before her hybrid foal was born, One of the bay mares 
