ORDER PACHYDERM AT A. 441 



was in nothing different from that of a Tame Horse ; its 

 hoofs were smaller and more pointed, and the hairs were 

 generally frizzled, especially towards the crupper and tail. 

 Leo Africanus and Marmol make mention of Wild 

 Horses in Africa; but all they say is, that these Horses 

 are smaller than the domestic races, of an ashen or white 

 colour, with short and bristling hair. This is a very in- 

 sufficient descriptipn, not to mention that these authors 

 make use of the very same expressions in speaking of the 

 Wild Ass. 



The Wild Horses of America are rather better known. 

 Many travellers have entered into details concerning them, 

 especially M. D'Azara, who has done so with his usual 

 precision. From the first period of the arrival of Euro- 

 peans in the New World, many Horses were left to them- 

 selves, and propagated very, rapidly. They were formerly 

 very common at St. Domingo, and even then differed in 

 some traits of character from the Spanish race, to which 

 they owe their birth. The head was thicker, and the 

 ears and neck longer; but where these animals have more 

 particularly multiplied, is in the southern continent of 

 America, and to the south of La Plata. There they may 

 be sometimes met in troops to the number of ten thousand 

 each. They also proceed from some Spanish race, but 

 have lost much of the elegance, beauty, lightness, and 

 grace of their primitive stock. They are not so tall, their 

 heads are thicker, the limbs more clumsy, the ears longer, 

 and the coat much rougher. Their usual colour is chestnut- 

 bay, and sometimes, but very rarely, black. These nume- 

 rous troops of Wild Horses are found in the immense and 

 thinly-inhabited plains which extend from the shores of 

 La Plata, to the country of the Patagonians. Each in- 

 habits a canton or district peculiar to itself, which it 

 defends from all foreign intrusion as its own especial pro- 

 perty, nor will it ever abandon it, except when compelled 



