THE HORSE. 101 



that both Prejevalsky's horse and the wild camels 

 which inhabit the Zaisan and Dzungarian deserts 

 are feral ; that is to say, they are descended from 

 animals which have escaped from captivity. The 

 Western mustangs, although they seem to have 

 undergone some of those reversionary changes 

 not uncommon among domestic animals which 

 have resumed their freedom, show no sign what- 

 ever of any curtailment of the mane. In fact, 

 Catlin and other writers who traversed Western 

 America in the days when there were innumerable 

 thousands of wild steeds living on the prairies, 

 describe them as possessing extraordinarily long 

 and thick manes reaching almost to the ground, 

 which, when the animals were in rapid motion, 

 enveloped the forepart of their bodies in a cloud 

 of flying hair. Of the various suggestions which 

 have been made as to the primary use of the 

 mane, two, I think, deserve attention. Doubt- 

 less such a coverinof would be useful in shielding 

 the delicate structures of the neck from the 

 weather ; although, seeing that the whole spine 

 of the animal seems equally to need protection, 

 this seems scarcely sufficient justification for the 

 local growth of the hair. More probably the 

 mane of the horse, like that of the lion, was 



