1904.] AND MARKINGS OF THE QUAGGA. 427 



in question. Nor is this all, for so long ago as 1880 Dr. Forsyth 

 Major* had actually pointed out the existence of a similar 

 feature in two living species of the family, in addition to noticing 

 its occurrence in the fossil Equus stenonis of the Pliocene beds 

 of the Yal d'Arno, and its somewhat later ally E. quaggoides. 



In this connection I myself have to acknowledge a similar lack 

 of acquaintance with Dr. Major's observations. 



Last year, in the columns of ' The Field,' I directed attention 

 to the occurrence of a vestige of the Hipparion's face-pit in the 

 skull of an Indian domesticated Horse in the collection of the 

 British Museum. A side view of this skull is given in the accom- 

 panying text-figure (84), fi-om which it will be seen that the 



Text-fie-. 84. 



Side view of skull (without lower jaw) of Domesticated Horse from India, 

 showing rudimentary face-pit. 



lachrymal pit forms a very shallow and neai-ly circvilar depression 

 in the bone a short distance in front of the orbit, in just the same 

 position as the much deeper pit occupies in the Hipparion skull. 

 The only other skull of a domesticated Horse in which I have 

 noticed a similar depression is that of the well-known racer "Bend 

 Or," in which it is still shallower. 



From the occuri'ence of the feature in question in these skulls, 

 both of which probably belonged to horses of Eastern origin, and 

 its entire absence in all the skulls of the Prehistoric European 

 horse, I have ventured to suggest that the " blood-horse," unlike 

 the " cold-blooded horse " of Western Europe, may possibly have 

 been the descendant of Eqivus sivcdensis. ^N'or do I think this 

 suggestion in anywise weakened by Dr. Major's earlier discovery 

 of a rvidiment of the face-pit in the European E. stenonis, since it 

 had apparently disappeared in the Pleistocene horse of Western 

 Europe. 



As regards the aforesaid observations of Dr. Forsyth Major, 

 which lead up to the main object of the present communication, 

 it is stated in the passage already cited that the figure of the 

 skull of the Quagga given in de Blainville's ' Osteographie,' 

 genus Equus, pi. iii., displays a distinct vestige of the pit for the 

 face-gland. Inspection of the plate fully confirms this statement. 

 Struck with this remarkable peculiarity, I examined the Quagga's 



* Abh. Schweiz. pal. Ges. vol. vii. p. 140. 



