86 ZEBRAS, HORSES, AND HYBRIDS 



2. Four attempts were made to cross the zebra 

 with Shetland ponies : only one succeeded. The 

 hybrid was a smaller edition of Romulus. The dam 

 Nora had been bred from before, and had produced 

 by a black Shetland pony a foal of a dun colour which 

 was markedly striped. After the birth of the hybrid 

 she was put to a bay Welsh pony ; the resulting foal 

 had only the faintest indication of stripes, which soon 

 disappeared. It is a remarkable fact that Nora's foals 

 were more striped before she had been mated with 

 the zebra than afterwards. 



3. Five Iceland ponies were mated with Matopo, 

 of whom one produced, in 1897, ^ dark - coloured 

 hybrid. The dam, Tundra, was a yellow and white 

 skewbald, which had previously produced a light bay 

 foal to a stallion of its own breed. Her third foal 

 (1898) was fathered by a bay Shetland pony, and in 

 coloration closely resembled its dam. There was 

 no hint of infection in this case. In 1899 Professor 

 Ewart bred from this mare, by Matopo, a zebra- 

 hybrid of a creamy fawn colour, and so primitive in 

 its markings that he believes it to stand in much the 

 same relation to horses, zebras, and asses as the 

 blue-rock does to the various breeds of pigeons (see 

 illustration). 



4. Two Irish mares, both bays, produced hybrids 

 by Matopo, and subsequently bore pure-bred foals. 

 One of the latter was by a thoroughbred horse, the 

 other by a hackney pony. The foals were without 

 stripes, and showed no kind of indication that their 

 mother had ever been mated with a zebra. 



5. Although Professor Ewart experimented with 

 seven English thoroughbred mares and an Arab, he 

 only succeeded in one case. The mare produced twin 

 hybrids, one of which, unfortunately, died immediately 

 after birth. In the summer of 1899 the same mare 

 produced a foal to a thoroughbred chestnut ; ' neither 



