114 



NA TURE 



[May 31, 1906 



This was the conclusion I arrived at when my attention 

 was first directed to the subject. But having ascertained 

 that, bv crossing carefully selected forms, remote types 

 are sometimes restored in all their original purity, I thought 

 it worth while to make some experiments. 



I selected for my Tarpan experiments a mouse-dun 

 Shetland pony mare, which seemed to me to be a blend of 

 at least three varieties — in its head it suggests the wild 

 horse ; in its mane, tail, and trunk it takes after the forest 

 variety ; while in the limbs and hoofs it approaches the 

 Celtic pony. This mare was crossed with a black Welsh 

 pony, which belongs to an ancient British race, and doubt- 

 less has in its veins not a little Celtic blood. 



The first foal, black like the sire, but Celtic in make, 

 failed to throw any fresh light on the question at issue. 

 Though in the first foal 

 the Celtic blood pre- 

 vailed, the second foal 

 by the same sire has de- 

 veloped into an animal 

 (Fig. i), now three 

 years old, which, though 

 bred in Scotland, will, 

 I believe, be regarded 

 by Continental natural- 

 ists as typical a Tarpan 

 as ever roamed the 

 Russian steppes. 



This Scottish Tarpan, 

 a mouse-dun with black 

 points, has a distinct 

 dorsal band (10 mm. to 

 15 mm. in width) and 

 faint bars above the 

 knees and hocks, a 

 somewhat heavy head, 

 but a short body and 

 well-formed limbs. The 

 mane, of a light colour 

 along each side, but 

 dark in the centre, is 

 semi-erect, some of the 

 hair arching to tht 

 right, some to the left, 

 and some forwards be- 

 tween the ears to form 

 an imperfect forelock. 

 The mane, which re- 

 sembles that of zebra- 

 horse hybrids, conforms 

 to the description of the 

 mane given by Pallas, 

 but differs from the 

 photograph jhort crisp mane of 

 ; as Fig. I. ^ ,. , *^ . , 



hair of the Cmelm s specimen, and 

 still more from that of 

 the Moscow Tarpan, 

 which, it will be re- 

 membered, reached a 

 length of 45 cm., and 

 hung to one side of the 

 neck. In the dun Shet- 

 land dam, the mane lies 

 close to the right side 

 of the neck, but never 

 exceeds a length of 

 In the Scottish Tarpan the mane, from 15 cm 

 to 27-5 cm. in length, is either nearly upright, or, 

 as already mentioned, arches outwards well clear of the 

 neck (Fig. i), whereas in a Fetlar (Shetland-Arab) pony 

 of the same age the mane reaches a length of 45 cm. 

 and clings to the side of the neck. The tail of the 

 new Tarpan (Fig. 2) is even more remarkable than the 

 mane. The dock, which is 275 cm. in length, is furnished 

 with three kinds of hair. The basal portion for 65 cm. 

 carries fine hair nearly circular in section, which, except 

 in the part continuous with the dorsal band, is almost 

 colourless ; the middle portion of the dock — about 13-75 cin. 

 — carries thicker hair, slightly oval in section, with a 

 thick cortex containing in some cases a considerable amount 

 of pigment ; from the terminal part of the dock — about 



NO. 1909, VOL. 74] 



KlG. 2. — Tail and hind quarters of the 

 Scottish Tarpan fro 

 taken at the same 



of three portions. The 

 basal portion only essentially differs 

 from the corresponding portion in 

 Fig. 3 by being of less e.xtent and 

 lighter in colour ; the middle portion 

 is also lighter in colour and more 

 plentiful than in the wild mare, while 

 the hair glowing from the end of 

 the dock in the Tarpan very closely 

 agrees in colour and amoui 

 the terminal portion of the 

 Prejvalskys horse. 



35 cm. 



75 cm. — spring coarse black hairs, which are now long, 

 enough to reach the ground. These long hairs are oval 

 in section, have a very thick cortex, and only a small 

 central axis or medulla. 



The fine, short, light-coloured hairs (7-5 cm. to 15 cm. 

 in length) at the base of the tail form a conspicuous some- 

 what lozenge-shaped bunch (Fig. 2) ; the thicker hairs 

 growing from the middle section of the dock reach a 

 length of 30 cm. They emerge from under the light- 

 coloured root hairs and expand to form a sort of fringe, 

 from which escape the relatively few long black hairs of 

 the distal part of the dock. 



In having a limited 

 number of long hairs 

 growing from the dis- 

 tal end of the dock, 

 this cross-bred pony 

 decidedly differs from 

 the Celtic as well as 

 from the forest types 

 of horses. The interest 

 of the tail in the Scot- 

 tish Tarpan is not so 

 much that it suggests 

 a mule as that it has a 

 very striking resem- 

 blance to the tail of 

 Prejvalsky 's horse 

 (F'g- 3)- The only 

 difference is that in the 

 true wild horse the 

 upper or light-coloured 

 section of the tail is 

 longer than in the 

 Shetland-Welsh cross, 

 which has, in fact, thr 

 kind of tail one would 

 expect in a Prejvalsky 

 hybrid in which the 

 w'ild blood was domin- 

 ant. 



A study of the man' 

 and tail of the Shei 

 land-Welsh cross, ami 

 of certain other crossi - 

 and breeds, strongl\ 

 suggests that we mu^i 

 include amongst tlv 

 ancestors of oui 

 domestic horses 1 

 species having a mane 

 and tail such as we 

 find in the wild horse 

 still living in Central 

 Asia. In the body 

 hair and the foot-locks 

 the Scottish Tarpan 

 closely reseiTibles the 

 wild horse. Further, 

 it resembles the wild 

 horse in having a very 

 short flank feather, 

 but differs in having 

 the face whorl situated 

 above the level of the 

 eyes, as in the Celtic 

 pony ; in Prejvalsky 's 

 horse, as in the 

 kvang, this whorl li 

 orbits. 



In the Shetland mare the dorsal band is nearly as narrow- 

 as in the Celtic pony ; the right hind chestnut measures 

 15 cm. by 0-4 cm., while the left is only 05 cm. in 

 diameter ; the front ergots are absent, and the hind ergots 

 are very small. In all these points the Shetland mare 

 approaches the Celtic type. In the Scottish Tarpan the 

 front ergots are small, the hind normal ; the front chest- 

 nuts are oval as in the wild horse, but decidedly smaller, 

 while the hind chestnuts are only one-fifth the length of 

 those in the wild horse. Finally, in the head, ears, form 

 of the limbs and hoofs, the Tarpan-like Shetland-Welsh 



3. — Hind qu 



G. A. E-.vart. 



ers and tail of a three- 

 {E. firejvalskii) from 

 a photograph also taken in September, 

 1Q05. In the upper part of the tail the hair, 

 light in colour and relatively fine, grows 

 obliquely outwards from the caudal portion 

 of the dorsal band ; the hair of the middle 

 part of the tail, darker and stronger than 

 that of the root, lies nearly parallel with 

 the dock and reaches to the level of the 

 hocks; the hair of the tip, black, coarse 

 and scanty, but long enough to reach the 

 ground, emerges from within the hair 

 forming the middle part of 



Like 



of the 



at the 

 ally. 



well below the level of the 



