no. 2086. SOME MAMMALS OF THE PLEISTOCENE— HAY. 551 . 



neger must be given largely the credit for having put the matter on 

 a basis which appears likely to prove satisfactory. According to 

 Ewart's results the modern breeds of horses are mixtures in varying 

 proportions of three distinct forms. The first of these has been called 

 by him Equus caballus celticus and, according to him, is represented 

 by small horses found in Iceland, in Connemara (Ireland), in the 

 Hebrides, and the Faroe Islands. The second form is the horse 

 known as Equus przevalskii, which exists now wild in the desert of 

 Gobi. The third form has been named by Ewart the Norse, or For- 

 est, horse, and is represented, according to him, by certain horses 

 which occur in northern Europe, especially in northern Scotland. 

 Ewart was inclined at first to regard the Celtic pony as a distinct 

 species; but in an important paper 1 published in 1907 he speaks of 

 it as the Plateau, or Celtic variety. Ewart's characterization of the 

 Forest horse is presented in the work just mentioned, but more fully 

 in the Proceedings of the same society (vol. 26, 1906, p. 8). The 

 Przevalsky horse is designated by Ewart the Steppe variety. 



In 1907 2 Stej neger pointed out that the Celtic pony is found com- 

 monly along the entire western coast of Norway and is known as the 

 fjord horse. He associated it with the tarpan, a horse of the steppe 

 region of southern Eussia, and regards these two horses as constitut- 

 ing a distinct species. As a representative of Ewart's Norse, or 

 Forest, horse Stej neger mentions another horse of Norway, occupying 

 the interior and eastern part of the country and known as the Gud- 

 brandsdal horse. This, too, he looks upon as a distinct species, which 

 includes the various heavy European horses, which must bear the 

 name Equus frisius (Boddaert). 



Ewart concluded that (1) the Forest horse is characterized by a 

 short, broad, and dished face, which is not much bent on the base of 

 the skull; that (2) the Plateau, or Celtic, variety has a narrow skull, 

 with broad brain case and with the face little bent on the basicranial 

 axis; while (3) the Steppe variety has a long, narrow skull, in which 

 the axis of the face makes a large angle with the basicranial axis. 



There exists a great amount of confusion regarding the types of 

 horses involved in the discussion and regarding their characteristics. 

 Ewart and Stej neger appear to be agreed that the Celtic ponies and 

 the fjord horses belong together. Ewart has announced as a feature 

 which distinguishes the Celtic pony from his Forest horses the nar- 

 rowness of the skull of the former. On the other hand, Stejneger 3 

 has given the measurements of a skull of a pony from the Loffoden 

 Islands, the cephalic index, of which, obtained by dividing the 

 frontal width by the basilar length and multiplying by 100, equals 46. 



1 Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. 4, pp. 555-587. 



2 Smiths. Misc. Proc, vol. 48, p. 469. 

 8 Idem, p. 473. 



