g6 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



Stout European aboriginal stock, but have been 

 much improved by constant selection and good 

 feeding. Many of them have the appearance 

 of overgrown ponies, and their general shape is 

 similar to that of the native European breeds 

 which have been kept fairly pure by isolation. 

 The mustangs of the West are now pretty 

 thoroughly mixed ; but in the first place they 

 were the descendants of the horses which 

 escaped from the Spanish conquerors. These, 

 from ancient pictures, I should judge to have 

 been a cross between the native European horse 

 and the African barb. 



One is often able to get interesting hints about 

 the habits of animals both in the present and in 

 the past by examining their colour : thus we shall 

 see, when we come to discuss the domestic cat, 

 that the markings familiar to us in the common 

 "tabby" reveal a very curious phase in the 

 ancient history of the animal. Certain horses, 

 especially the breeds common in Norway and 

 North- East Europe, have a dark stripe down 

 the spine, and occasionally a few cross markings 

 upon the upper part of the fore-legs. This seems 

 to indicate that at one time the horse was a 

 striped animal, especially as there seems a 



