122 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
ground was not so bad, they had become exceed- 
ingly alert and cunning, and the sight of men on 
horseback would send them flying to the most 
inaccessible places in the marshes, where it was 
impossible to follow them. Eventually plans were 
laid and the troop driven from their stronghold 
out into the open country, where the ground was 
firm, and most of them were captured. Cristiano 
was one of them, a colt about four or five months 
old, and my friend took possession of him, 
attracted by his blue eye and fine fawn colour. 
In quite a short time the colt became perfectly 
tame, and when broken turned out an exceptionally 
good riding-horse. But though so young when 
captured the wild alert habit was never dropped. 
He could never be still: when out grazing with 
the other horses or when standing tied to the 
palenque he was perpetually on the watch, and the 
cry of a plover, the sound of galloping hoofs, the 
sight of a horseman, would startle him and cause 
him to trumpet his alarm. 
It strikes me as rather curious that in spite of 
Cristiano’s evident agitation at certain sounds and 
sights, it never went to the length of a panic; he 
never attempted to break loose and run away. 
He behaved just as if the plover’s cry or the 
sound of hoofs or the sight of mounted men had 
produced an illusion—that he was once more a 
wild hunted horse—yet he never acted as though 
it was an illusion. It was apparently nothing more 
than a memory and a habit. 
