PART VI 



PROBABLE MEANING OF SOME INTERESTING 

 FEATURES IN HORSES AND OTHER MAMMALS 



Besides the dappling which I have tried to account for, Horses 

 have certain other marks which are very common indeed, and 

 which are more conspicuous in self-coloured Horses, such as bays, 

 browns, blacks, etc. 



For instance, Horses very commonly have what is called a 

 white ' blaze ' all over the front of the face down to the mouth ; or 

 a simple white star on the forehead, which varies between a mere 

 white speck and a white patch. 



Then there are intermediate stages as shown in Fig. 74. Some- 

 times the ' blaze ' is interrupted, a white patch being on the fore- 

 head, and another on the nose, and so on. Finally every trace of 

 the white blaze may be obliterated, and the whole face is of the 

 same colour as the body. Frequently, however, in dark and dun- 

 coloured horses the blaze is black, and in dark grey horses it is of 

 a sooty 'grey, more or less interrupted, on a lighter ground. 



Now, is there any way of accounting for this feature, so common 

 in the domestic Horse ? One day, in Piccadilly, I saw standing a 

 dark grey cab Horse. On its forehead it had three pairs of faint 

 radiating stripes of a grey colour on a white ground — as shown in 

 Fig. 75 {a). It struck me that these might be vestiges of the" Zebra 

 face-marks. There happened at the time to be a stuffed specimen 



