42 THE PENTCUIK EXPEKIMENTS. 



chestnuts in their remote ancestors ; their absence points, 

 I think, to asses and zebras having sprung from a different 

 ancestor (perhaps Hipparion) than the horses, which may 

 have descended straight from Protohippus. If Remns sur- 

 vives, he may reach a height of nearly fourteen hands, 

 and be the most handsome and fleetest of all the present 

 crop of hybrids. 



As in the case of zebra foals, the hair over the back and 

 hind quarters of Remus soon increased in length, and 

 formed a thick woolly covering. The hair of the first coat 

 usually falls off soonest from the face and neck, then from 

 the legs, especially at the knees and above and below the 

 hooks. Some of the hair was shed fi'om the face by the 

 end of the first month, but there was still some left on the 

 muzzle and brow at the end of the third month, and the 

 legs retained some of the foal's coat at the end of the 

 fourth month. The second coat, which was completed by 

 the end of the fifth month (/. e. about the middle of 

 October), consisted of a thick inner coat of bay and brown 

 fine wa^ry hairs, averaging an inch and half in length, and 

 of an outer but mucli less abundant coat of stronger hairs, 

 many of which were two and a half inches in length. 

 Neither the long nor short hairs nor the hairs of the 

 mane have yet (January) begun to fall out. 



The Hybrid " Bkexda." 

 The dam (" Lady Douglas ") of Brenda is a cross-bred 

 Clydesdale mare, built on the lines of the " Douglas " breed 

 once common in the Hamilton district. Like Biddy, she 

 is a bay with black points, but, unlike the Irish mare, she 

 has a large " blaze " on the face, a heavy mane and tail, 

 and a liberal amount of hair at the fetlock-joints. Lady 

 Douglas is fifteen hands high, the circumference at the 

 knee is thirteen and a half inches, and below the knee 

 nine inches. The face is longer than in Biddy by nearlv 

 an inch, and the ears by three quarters of an inch. I 

 expected Brenda (the Clydesdale's first foal) to closely 

 resemble Remus in colour and markings; but in breedino- 



