s 



36 THE PENYCOIK EXPERIMENTS. 



layer of woolly hair, from half an inch to nearly two 

 inches in length, and of a less complete coat of stronger 

 hairs, many of which were nearly three inches in length. 

 Near their roots all the body hairs were light in colour, 

 which implies that had the hybrid been clipped there 

 would have been little or no indication of stripes left. In 

 the zebra, on the other hand, the dark pigment extends 

 to the roots of the hair, and hence, however short the 

 hau' may be, the banding is quite evident. Recently 

 the skin around the root of Matopo's tail was injured, 

 with the result that the hair, together with some of 

 the epidermis, was shed; but even before the points 

 of the new hair could be detected, the position of the 

 dark bands was perfectly distinct. The skin of the 

 zebra has been described as uniformly black, even under 

 the white bands ; but it would be more accurate to say 

 it IS of a dark grey colour between the bands and 

 stripes, and nearly black where the bands and stripes 

 occur. 



About the middle of March the long hairs began to 

 drop out, and by the end of March they came away in 

 handfuls. As the long hairs were shed from the body, 

 the long hairs were shed from the upper half of the tail, 

 with the result that for a time the tail of the hybrid was 

 little better covered than the tail of his sire. By the end 

 of May all the long hairs — light and dark — had vanished, 

 and early in June the dark and mouse-coloured woolly 

 hairs were coming out. By the 6th of June the dark 

 lustreless winter coat had sufficiently gone around the 

 base of the ears and above the eyes to indicate the colour 

 of the summer coat. All through June and July the 

 process of shedding continued, but bj^ the 12th of August 

 — the hybrid's first birthday — the summer coat was fully 

 established. The dark stripes, which consisted chieiiy of 

 strong flattened hairs, looked very prominent. The inter- 

 mediate bands were of a reddish brown colour over the 

 brow, but elsewhere reminded one of the summer coat of a 

 stag. Taken as a whole, Romulus was very decidedly 



