i68 



STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



of Burchell's Zebra in Rowland Ward's window ; so I went over to 

 look at it, and found that the marks on this Horse's face corre- 

 sponded to three pairs of similarly radiating stripes on the Zebra 

 face, as shown in Fig. 75 {b). 



In studying this curious feature further, I came to the con- 

 clusion that the dark blaze on the dark grey Horse, and on some 

 bay and dun-coloured Horses, was a more or less complete fusion 

 of the stripes we see on the Zebra's face, thus forming a dark blaze. 



^ 



vj^/ V^ 



Fig. 74. — Diagrammatic sketches of the faces of Horses ;(a) shows a full white ' blaze ' ; {d) 

 a white star on the forehead ; (<5 and c) intermediate contractions of the ' blaze ' ; { X ) indicates 

 the white part on a dark ground. 



Then, as black is interchangeable with white, in some dark Horses 

 we see a complete white blaze, occupying the whole of the lozenge- 

 shaped face of the Horse, as shown in Fig. 74 {a). The other 

 figures {b and c) are mere contractions of the blaze, until we come 

 to a mere vestige of the blaze in the shape of a small white star 

 between the eyes, which, in others, becomes completely obliterated. 

 It would be tedious to go through all the variations that this 

 blaze is subject to ; suffice it to say, that it sometimes invades the 

 whole head, while in others it disappears completely. 



