2 24 STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



into one band ; while in Burchell's Zebra every alternate band has 

 become fainter, and may be disappearing altogether. 



I have so far endeavoured to trace the relationship of the Arma- 

 dillo, the Rhinoceros, and the Horse, simply from characters which 

 they retain on their hides. This relationship I find can be also 

 traced to the Zebu of Fig. 58, and to the Giraffe of Fig. 57. In 

 another place I have shown that probably there is a more intimate 

 relationship between the Horse and the ruminants than there is 

 between the Horse and the Rhinoceros. Of course their skeleton 

 and general anatomy sufficiently indicate a certain fundamental 

 relationship, but what I am aiming at here is to trace a closer 

 relationship between certain groups of mammals by means of 

 the hieroglyphics exhibited on their skin. With these external 

 and more transient characters anatomy does not concern itself 



If the reader will take the trouble to compare certain Horse 

 rosettes shown in Fig. 43, certain Giraffe rosettes shown in Fig. 83 

 («) and {J}), and the rosettes of the Zebu of Fig. 83 (c) and {d), with 

 certain Jaguar rosettes of Fig. 59, and then again compare certain 

 bone-rosettes of Armadillos of Fig. 63 (c) with certain hide-rosettes 

 of the Rhinoceros of Fig. 80, he can hardly fail to be convinced that 

 they «// — bone-rosettes,, hide-rosettes, and pigment-rosettes — had one 

 and the same origin. Of course the rosettes of the Horse, and more 

 especially those of the Ox, have undergone much alteration, not only 

 through remoteness of descent, but also by prolonged domestica- 

 tion, and human selection, so that piebaldness and total oblitera- 

 tion of all traces of rosetting are very frequent features in these 

 animals. 



From what evidence I have been able to adduce, I think we are 

 justified in again drawing the broad conclusion that, in mammals 

 at least, all spotted, striped, ringtailed, and piebald animals have 

 descended from armour-plated ancestors. And as we know that 



