Chap. II. THEIR COLOURS AND STRIPES. 55 



and of horses imported at high prices from various countries. 26 

 We may therefore conclude that, whether or not the various 

 existing breeds of the horse have proceeded from one or more 

 aboriginal stocks, yet that a great amount of change has re- 

 sulted from the direct action of the conditions of life, and 

 probably a still greater amount from the long-continued selec- 

 tion by man of slight individual differences. 



With several domesticated quadrupeds and birds, certain 

 coloured marks are either strongly inherited or tend to reappear 

 after having long been lost. As this subject will hereafter be 

 seen to be of importance, I will give a full account of the colour- 

 ing of horses. All English breeds, however unlike in size and 

 appearance, and several of those in India and the Malay archi- 

 pelago, present a similar range and diversity of colour. The 

 English race-horse, however, is said 27 never to be dun-coloured ; 

 but as dun and cream-coloured horses are considered by the 

 Arabs as worthless, " and fit only for Jews to ride," 28 these tints 

 may have been removed by long-continued selection. Horses 

 of every colour, and of such widely different kinds as dray- 

 horses, cobs, and ponies, are all occasionally dappled, 29 in the 

 same manner as is so conspicuous with grey horses. This fact 

 does not throw any clear light on the colouring of the abori- 

 ginal horse, but is a case of analogous variation, for even 

 asses are sometimes dappled, and I have seen, in the British 

 Museum, a hybrid from the ass and zebra dappled on its 

 hinder quarters. By the expression analogous variation (and it 

 is one that I shall often have occasion to use) I mean a variation 

 occurring in a species or variety which resembles a normal cha- 

 racter in another and distinct species or variety. Analogous 

 variations may arise, as will be explained in a future chapter, 



26 Prof. Gervais (in his ' Hist. Nat. colours of horses. I have seen cream- 

 Mamm.,' torn. ii. p. 144) has collected coloured, light-dun and mouse-dun horses 

 many facts on this head. For instance, dappled, which I mention because it 

 Solomon (Kings, b. i. ch. x. v. 28) has been stated (Martin, 'History of 

 bought horses in Egypt at a high the Horse,' p. 134) that duns are never 

 P rice - dappled. Martin fp. 205) refers to dap- 



27 'The Field,' July 13th, 1861, p. pled asses. In 'The Farrier' (London, 

 42 - 1828, pp. 453, 455) there are some good 



28 E. Vernon Harcourt, < Sporting in remarks on the dappling of horses ; and 

 Algeria,' p. 26. likewise in Col. Hamilton Smith on 



29 I state this from my own observa- ' The Horse.' 

 tions made during several years on the 



