98 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



bred is impossible to describe, as lie may have been thrown to his 

 Thorough-bred sire, or his coarse-bred dam. In consequence he 

 may look a well-bred^ handsome horse^ or a coarse, ugly one. 

 Specimens of each may be found in India. 



Australian Waler. — Generally Thorough-bred. They are, I think, 

 more dehcate in India than the English Thorough-bred, and I have 

 found their stock disappointing. This I am told was also acknow- 

 ledged to be the case in old stud-days. 



New Zealanders. — As far as I am aware have not as yet been 

 tried. 



Cape. — Have now become extinct. I am informed that there 

 used to be some very superior stallions of this breed in former days 

 in the stud. Captain Nunn, D.S.O., of the Army Vety. Department 

 in his report on the Cape horses, published a few years ago, speaks 

 unfavorably of the present breed. 



J/ares.— Speaking in general terms, the indigenous equine of 

 India is really what would be considered in England a pony. Gifted 

 with marvellous powers of endurance, ability to live and work on a 

 minimum of food, and capable of continuous exertion for long 

 periods. These are the good qualities of the race. On the other 

 hand, as a result of many generations of ill management, want of 

 knowledge and care in breeding, climatic influences, and bad keep, 

 they are narrow, wanting in middle piece, in bone, in height, and in 

 action. Though often of fair conformation in front, they nearly 

 always fall off behind, drooping quarters, narrowness across the hips, 

 sickle, or cow-hocks are the rule, not the exception. This is the 

 class of horse that is at our disposal to produce remounts for the 

 Army and useful horses for the general public. 



Without doubt exceptions to the above may be found, and there 

 are in the Punjab and on the Frontier several breeds which furnish 

 promising brood mares, of fair height, bone, and substance. In 

 Bombay too, Kathiawar and the Deccan produced in the old days a 

 good class of animal, but now one is met on all sides by lamenta- 

 tions over the decadence of the Kathiawari, and the almost utter 

 disappearance of the little Deccanni. 



The problem to be solved, or, I may say, in course of solution is, 

 ''' What are we to do to improve the indigenous stock up to the 



