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time speaks of law and some kind of regularity ; — tells us that there 

 must be a special cause for it, and a way of explainmg it. Some- 

 times both fore-feet are thus provided with an extra hoof, very 

 rarely it occurs on the hind feet, — more rarely still on all four. 

 The latter was the case however with the eight-toed Cuban horse 

 an animal Avhich reached maturity, and underwent the scrutiny of 

 scientific men. The extra hoof, notice is on the inner side, and is 

 always smaller than the normal one. In his recent book on 

 " Creatures of other Days," Mr. Hutchinson mentions several 

 ■other instances ; he also tells us that " in the museum at Yale 

 College, there is preserved, a specimen of a horse, which, besides 

 having two extra toes on each foot, had concealed beneath the 

 skin, the remains of another one corresponding to the human 

 thumb." 



Our double-hoofed horse reminds us of similar phenomena in 

 other animals, and starts many questions besides those relating to 

 itself. Why, among the many varieties of pigeons due to the 

 ingenuity of man, do we find repeatedly and unexpectedly a slaty- 

 blue bird with two dark bars across the wings and other markings 

 which its parents did not possess ? What is the origin of the 

 spinal and shoulder stripes, found sometimes on the Horse, always 

 on the Ass ? How is it that the latter animal, and indeed the 

 former as well, have occasionally (and particularly while young), 

 transverse bars on the legs, leading us to conclude there is some 

 relationship to the Zebra, or the Quagga? if so, what relationship ? 

 Do the stripes sometimes found on young lions point to any 

 relationship with the tiger ? Questions like these, in reference to 

 both animals and plants, are legion ; how can they be answered ? 

 I hope in this paper to throw some little light upon them. 



The phenomena mentioned are one and all palpable references 

 to a chapter or chapters in the ancestral history of the animals, — 

 exceedingly suggestive, full of information. I may say at once, 

 that apart from the theory of Development, or Evolution, there is 

 no method of explaining them. There is no naturalist of any 

 authority or note in these days who does not, more or less, accept 

 this theory. You can take up no modern work on any branch of 

 Biology, which does not take for granted that all creatures now 

 living in the world are descended from others gone before through a 

 long line of varymg ancestors, whose forms grow less and less fami- 

 liar to us ;is we travel farther back in time, until we lose ourselves 

 among the undefined lights and shadows of the early world. The 

 theory has been opposed for many years, but has continuously 

 gained ground, as one illustrative proof after another has been 

 brought to light by the anatomist and the palaeontologist. In the 

 case of the Horse these proofs and illustrations are more complete 

 .and more nearly perfect than in the case of any other creature, 



