74 TELEQONY AND REVERSION. 



tiou, and, except in 1848, no fresh blood has been recently 

 introduced into the Island of Rum section of the group, to 

 which Mulatto's sire belonged.* Hence these ponies may be 

 looked upon as forming' a remarkably pure breed, and 

 Mulatto may be considered an excellent substitute for Lord 

 Morton's all but pure Arabian chestnut mare.t As to the 

 Rum pony foals, I have learned from Lord Arthur Cecil 

 that they are at birth frequently mouse-coloured with a 

 faint dorsal stripe. After the first year the "colts" are 

 dark brown or nearly black, with in most cases hazel- 

 coloured eyes, a thick long mane and forelock, a long heavy 

 tail, chestnuts on both fore and hind limbs, but little hair 

 atthe fetlock joints. There is no record of these foals having 

 been marked with shoulder-stripes, though there has been 

 occasionally for a time a cloudy patch over the shoulders ; 

 neither have stripes been noticed on the legs, neck, or 

 body. In support of the belief of the late Marquis of 

 Salisbury (who owned the Island of Rum) that these 

 ponies had Eastern blood in their veins, it may be men- 

 tioned that in various respects they approach the highest 

 type of horses that has probably ever existed — I mean, of 

 course, the high-caste Arabs. I need only add as to 

 Mulatto that Romulus was her first foal, that she is now 

 (1897) six years old, and that she is of an extremely gentle 

 disposition,— as unlike as possible the restless, excitable, 

 inquisitive zebra with which she was first mated. + 



TJie Sire, il/n/ojio.— The zebra sire (Matopo) presents 

 all the characteristic markings of a Burchell's zebra (Fio-s. 

 17 and IS), and though under thirteen hands, he is a hand- 

 some fellow, always in excellent condition, with fairly good 

 shoulders, perfect legs and feet, and very fine action. The 

 hind quarters are well formed, the tail is set on more as in 



* The well-bred black West Highland ponies are or were found chiefly 

 on the Inner and Outer Hebrides, which lie to the west and north-west of 

 the mainland of Scotland— the survivors of tlie Island of Rum herd Lord 

 Arthur Cecil had removed some time ago to Kent. 



t Mulatto, by producing an abundantly striped hybrid foal, has proved 

 herself well fitted for the experiment from at least one point of view. 



X For further particulars as to the West Highland ponies see p. 6. 



