178 STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



of ancestral armour which had passed through stages of partial 

 disannour. 



I have seen a white Pony which had the mouth, circles round 

 his eyes, and circlets just above the four hoofs, all of a yellow or 

 rather golden-bay colour. It is evident that in these parts there 

 was some difference of innervation — a remote ancestral habit of the 

 nerve-centres — which prevented a total albinism of the skin. 



Of course, in the great battle of life, and the many adaptations 

 to surroundings to which animals have been subjected, and in the 

 fancies of breeders of domestic animals which have revolutionised 

 the coloration of a number of animals, it is not to be expected that 

 they could long retain the coloration of their unarmoured parts 

 unmodified. We therefore now see mere vestiges of ancestral 

 features. It is only occasionally, by a sort of reversion, that we 

 are let into the secrets of what may have obtained in remote times. 

 The very fact that so many different kinds of animals have these 

 features is sufficient indication of their antiquity. 



As I said, there is no hard and iasX fixity of coloration in these 

 parts ; there is not only an interchangeableness of black into tan, 

 or shades thereof, and of tan into white, but also an intermingling 

 of the coloration of contiguous surfaces, as well as a dwindling, in 

 many cases of the markedly coloured surface. For instance, we see 

 the white hands and feet dwindling to the last phalanges in certain 

 Cats and Dogs, and in Horses to a mere vestige of white just above 

 the hoof In the Horse all four limbs may be white, or only three, 

 two, or even only one, may be white, so that the contrasted colours 

 often merge into the general coloration. The curious thing is that 

 in the Horse there would appear to be some correlation between 

 the mane and tail and the four feet, for all these are often of the 

 same contrasted colour, eithfer black or white, or shades of tan, 

 when the body is of a totally different colour. 



