i8 



common. . . . Perhaps, out of a hundred mares among the 

 Anazeh, one would see thirty-five bay, thirty grey, fifteen 

 chestnut, and the rest brown or black. . . . The bays often 

 have black points and generally a white foot, or two or three 

 white feet, and a snip or blaze down the face. . . . With very 

 few exceptions, all the handsomest mares we saw were bay, 

 which is, without doubt, by far the best colour in Arabia, as it is 

 in England. ... In choosing Arabians, I should take none 

 but bays, and, if possible, bays with black points." 



Mr. Blunt's views as to the superiority, both in 

 quality and numbers, of the bay Arab are confirmed by 

 two such capable and independent observers as Major 

 Upton* and General Tweedie.t We may, therefore, 

 take it as fact that the bay is the commonest colour 

 among the Arabs, and that the best Arabs are usually 

 bays. 



Though we have bean able to identify only thirteen 

 bay horses among those enumerated by Osborne (page 6), 

 it is not to be supposed for a moment that these exhaast 

 the list of bays. On the contrary, bay being the com- 

 monest colour among Arabs, it is onl\' reasonable to think 

 that the name given the horse weuld, as a rule, not refer 

 to his colour unless it were something a little out of the 

 ordinary. When a horse was descri-bed as somebody's 

 " bay Arabian," it is probable that the colour was recorded 

 to distinguish the horse from another of different colour 

 belonging to the same owner. 



The predominance of bays among our race-horses for 

 many generations justifies the belief that they are 

 descended, for the most part, from bay ancestors. Of 

 one hundred and twenty-seven Derbys (1780-1906), no 



* Gleanings from the Desert of Arabia. 1881. 



t The Arabian Horse : his Country and People. 1894. 



