108 TELEGONY AND EEVERSION. 



ing, because they closely correspond to narrow stripes iu a 

 similar position iu my zebra hybrids. 



Have these various lines any significance ? Are they 

 due to rows of hair lying at an unusual angle, or to 

 furrows in the skin, or are they the last remnants of 

 ancestral stripes, or of the spaces between stripes ?* Some- 

 what similar but more prominent lines occur in Indian 

 cattle, the ancestors of which were probably striped, and 

 also in mules, and in some of my zebra hybrids. Taking 

 into consideration that these lines in their arrangement 

 agree more or less accurately with the stripes in the 

 mountain zebra, and with the fragments of stripes in 

 Norwegian and other ponies, I am inclined to the view 

 that though not necessarily vestiges of stripes they indicate 

 where the ancestral stripes occurred. All we know as to 

 the origin of stripes is agaiust the supposition that the 

 lines are the rudiments or forerunners of stripes by-and- 

 by to be evolved. 



Let us now inquire if stripes occur across the croup 

 (sacral region) and rump- — the region lying between the 

 croup and the root of the tail. Darwin describes stripes 

 in this region in a foal of his own breeding. After men- 

 tioning that almost the whole body was marked with very 

 narrow obscure stripes, he says the "stripes were distinct 

 on the hind quarters where they diverged from the spine 

 and pointed a little forwards." Darwin does not seem to 

 have observed stripes across the croup in a full-grown 

 horse. Such stripes are, however, said to occur even in 

 horses having a large proportion of Eastern blood. I have 

 before me a drawing of a well-bred Austrian mare which, 

 in addition to shoulder stripes and stripes on the face, 

 neck, and legs, and across the root of the tail, had three 

 stripes across the hind quarters. One of these runs 



s 



* I may mention that the stripes have no relation to the ribs or to the 

 course of nerves or blood-vessels in recent zebras, but they may have 

 run parallel to nerves or blood-vessels in the ancestors of the zebras. 

 Some of them, however, correspond closely to wrinkles which occasionally 

 appear on the skin ; but this does not hold for the neck stripes. 



