ON COLOUR. 257 



on lier fine sloping shoulder was like gazing 

 into the wine-dark depths of an old-fashioned 

 mahogany dining-table, kept as such an article 

 of furniture was in the days of our youth. 

 A very rich bay I have now is exactly the 

 colour of a horse chestnut, more nearly 

 matching it, in fact, than any chestnut horse 

 I ever saw. The darkest bay is generally 

 to be distinguished from a genuine brown 

 by having black points, while a brown has 

 often, too, a tan muzzle, which again is some- 

 times the only thing to distinguish it from 

 a black. So nearly do these three colours, 

 through the range of tints in the two 

 former, blend, that it is common in racing 

 entries to describe an animal thus : b. or 

 br. colt So-and-so ; or, br. or blk. filly 

 Something-else. I think the most diffi- 

 cult to determine that I ever knew was 

 a mare named Beatrice, which ran in some 

 hurdle races in the West of England many 

 years ago. What she really was was a light 



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