200 DISTINCT SPECIES PBESENT [Chap. V. 



as purely-bred. The spine is always striped ; the legs 

 are generally barred ; and the shoulder-stripe, which is 

 sometimes double and sometimes treble, is common ; 

 the side of the face, moreover, is sometimes striped. 

 The stripes are often plainest in the foal ; and some- 

 times quite disappear in old horses. Colonel Poole has 

 seen both gray and bay Kattywar horses striped when 

 first foaled. I have also reason to suspect, from infor- 

 mation given me by Mr. W. "W". Edwards, that with the 

 English race-horse the spinal stripe is much commoner 

 in the foal than in the full-grown animal. I have 

 myself recently bred a foal from a bay mare (offspring 

 of a Turkoman horse and a Flemish mare) by a bay 

 English race-horse; this foal when a week old was 

 marked on its hinder quarters and on its forehead with 

 numerous, very narrow, dark, zebra-like bars, and its 

 legs were feebly striped : all the stripes soon disappeared 

 completely. Without here entering on further details, 

 I may state that I have collected cases of leg and 

 shoulder stripes in horses of very different breeds in 

 various countries from Britain to Eastern China ; and 

 from Xorway in the north to the Malay Archipelago in 

 the south. In all parts of the world these stripes occur 

 far oftenest in duns and mouse-duns ; by the term dun 

 a large range of colour is included, from one between 

 brown and black to a close approach to cream-colour. 



I am aware that Colonel Hamilton Smith, who has 

 written on this subject, believes that the several breeds 

 of the horse are descended from several aboriginal 

 species — one of which, the dun, was striped; and 

 that the above-described appearances are all due to 

 ancient crosses with the dun stock. But this view 

 may be safely rejected ; for it is highly improbable that 



