INTERESTING FEATURES IN HORSES, ETC. 171 



Zebra's face. We have seen that white, black, and tan are inter- 

 changeable. Dark Horses have either white or black blazes ; and 

 dun and roan Horses have sometimes conspicuously black blazes. 



This interchange of colour — general or partial — occurs in various 

 other animals. The black and tan Dog turns into tan and white ; 

 the Dalmatian Dog is white, spotted black ; certain Deer are of a 

 tan colour, spotted white ; and the stripped American Marmot is of 

 a dark colour, with strings of white spots. 



Besides Horses there are many other animals that have black 

 blazes on their face, such as several species of Antelope, several 

 kinds of Deer, Ibex, Goats,i etc., and the Bontd Bok Antelope 

 {Damalis Pycarga) has a white blaze. Cattle have often a white 

 star on the forehead, which we might consider, as in the Horse, a 

 vestige of the white blaze. 



We may perhaps infer that the black blaze is a fusion of the 

 Zebra's face-stripes, as we have before inferred that certain 

 blotches and stripes on animals are fusions of isolated spots, but 

 why a black blaze should turn into a white blaze, or tan feet 

 should turn into white feet, as in the Dog, is more than I can tell. 

 It would appear to be caused by a sort of atomic ' conjuring ' 

 of the nerve-centres hidden from our view even through the most 

 powerful microscopes. Anyhow, we have ceased to think of super- 

 natural causes for all these phenomena. There must be some 

 natural' causes for them, although at present we do not know them. 



All I know is that white, black, and tan colours in mammals are, 

 as I said, interchangeable, and therefore I surmise that the Horse's 

 white .blaze may have been originally black, and that in some 

 varieties it changed into white, and has for some reason become 

 moj-e" persistent in this colour. 



-Whether the blaze of the Horse may have any relation to the 



^ The male Bharal ( Ovis Nahura) has a fine black blaze. 



