200 



LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



extended as far north as Pennsylvania and west to Nebraska. 

 On the other hand, E.^giganteus of Texas exceeded the 

 heaviest modern draught-horses in size and was the largest of 

 the American species ; of other Texan forms, one {E. ]scotii) 

 resembled Burchell's Zebra (E.burchelli) in the proportions 

 of head and neck, body and limbs, while another {E.]semi- 

 plicatus) was more ass-like. The forest horse of the eastern 



Fig. 115. — A Horse {Equus fscotti) from the older Pleistocene of Texas. Restored 

 from a skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History. 



states has been named E.]-pectinatus, an animal of moderate 

 size. The Great Plains must have been fairly covered with 

 enormous herds of horses, the countless bones and teeth of 

 which, entombed in the Sheridan formation, have given to it 

 the name of "Equus beds." The most abundant of the plains 

 species is E.'fcomplicatus, a horse of about 14^ hands in height 

 {i.e. 4 feet 10 inches at the shoulder) which also ranged down 

 the Mississippi Valley nearly or quite to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 In California was E.^occidentalis, equalling E.'\complicatus in 

 size, but with much more simple teeth, and associated with 



