Wilson — The Inheritance of the Dun Coat- Colour in Horses. 185 



was a distinct variety ; but the behaviour of either towards the other was uot 

 disclosed. 



At the same time tlie data concerning dun were very few — only twenty- 

 three cases being quoted, in addition to information gathered on Clare 

 Island — and its position was only suggested iu a foot-note. Since the pub- 

 lication of the previous paper, search has been made for further dun data, 

 which it is proposed to bring together in the present paper. 



The reason for searching specially for dun data is that, for many years, 

 this colour has been looked upon as a reversion, liable to appear among all 

 kinds of horses, but especially among cross-breds, no matter what tlie colours 

 of the parents, and because this view has been closely connected with' the 

 subject of inheritance. It is also desirable to confirm the previous 

 finding. 



It would be difficult to say when stock-breeders began to look iipon 

 animals unlike their parents but like some remote ancestor as reversions; 

 but, if the matter was not considered previously, it was brought into notice 

 by the publication, in 1821, of Lord Morton's quagga experiments. Lord 

 Morton, as stated in his communication to the Royal Society, read in 

 November, 1820, wished to experiment in domesticating the quagga, and 

 " endeavoured to procure some individuals of that species." He " obtained 

 a male ; but being disappointed of a female," he " tried to breed from the 

 male quagga and a young chestnut mare of seven-eighths Arabian blood, 

 and which had never been bred from : the result was the production of a 

 female hybrid, now five years old, and bearing, both in her form and in her 

 colour, very decided indications of her mixed origin." Lord Morton pro- 

 ceeds : — " I subsequently parted with the seven-eighths Arabian mare to 

 Sir Gore Ouseley, who has bred from her by a very tine black Arabian 

 horse. I yesterday morning examined the produce, namely, a two-year-old 

 filly, and a year-old colt. They have the character of the Arabian breed as 

 decidedly as can be expected, where fifteen-sixteenths of the blood are 

 Arabian ; and they are fine specimens of that breed ; but both in their 

 colour, and in the hair of their manes, they have a striking resemblance to 

 the quagga. Their colour is bay, marked more or less like the quagga in 

 a darker tint. Both are distinguished by the dark line along the ridge of 

 the back, the dark stripes across the fore-hand, and the dark bars across the 

 back part of the legs. The stripes across the fore-hand of the colt are con- 

 fined to the withers, and to the part of the neck next to them; those on the 

 filly cover nearly the whole of the neck and the back, as far as tlie flanks. 

 The colour of her coat on the neck adjoining the mane is pale, and approach- 

 ing to dun, rendering the stripes there more conspicuous than those on the 



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