DAPPLED AND STRIPED HORSES 75 



place that the components of these Horse dapplings are themselves 

 only a fusion of minor rosettes — which I take to be the true homo- 

 logues of the Jaguar rosettes. 



Making allowance for the evolutionary deviations which have 

 certainly occurred during the descents of the Horse and the Jaguar 

 from their remote ancestral common stock, I hope to show that 

 their skin-markings also result from common ancestral markings, 

 although those of the Horse are now much altered. But so is his 

 skeleton altered ; and his legs, by a superficial observer, would 





GO 



Fig. 42. — (a) Two rosette-like groups from the shoulder of Fig. 36 ; (b) two rosette-like 

 gi-oups from the flank of a Jaguar, given for comparison ; (c) faint rosette-like dappling from 

 the neck of a whitish-grey Horse. 



scarcely be considered as having any community of descent with 

 those of the Jaguar. 



The spotting of the Horse would appear to be a transient 

 feature, changing with age, like that of certain ruminants ; while in 

 the Jaguar the spotting may be much more permanent, although I 

 am not aware that anybody has made any accurate observations 

 on the strict permanency or otherwise of the Leopard's and 

 Jaguar's rosetting. Judging from the specimens of very young 

 Leopard's skins that I have seen, and from the very young Jaguar 

 and Cheetah skins in the Natural History Museum, I should be 

 inclined to say that the rosetting of these animals is not strictly 



