56 



HORSES. 



Chap. i[, 



from two or more forms with a similiar constitution haying 

 been exposed to similar conditions,— or from one of two forms 

 having reacquired through reversion a character inherited 



by the other form from their common progenitor, or from 



both forms having reverted to the same ancestral character. 

 We shall immediately see that horses occasionally exhibit 

 a tendency to become striped over a large part of their 

 bodies; and as we know that stripes readily pass into spots 

 and cloudy marks in the varieties of the domestic cat and in 

 several feline species — even the cubs of the uniformly-coloured 

 lion being spotted with dark marks on a lighter ground— we 

 may suspect that the dappling of the horse, which has been 

 noticed by some authors with surprise, is a modification or 

 vestige of a tendency to become striped. 



This tendency in the horse to become striped is in several respects an 

 interesting fact. Horses of all colours, of the most diverse breeds, in 

 various parts of the world, often have a dark stripe extending along the 

 spine, from the mane to the tail ; but this is so common that I need enter 

 into no particulars. 30 Occasionally horses are transversely barred on the 

 legs, chiefly on the under side ; and more rarely they have a distinct stripe 

 on the shoulder, like that on the shoulder of the ass, or a broad dark patch 

 representing a stripe. Before entering on any details I must premise that 



Fig. 1.— Dun Devonshire Pony, with shoulder, spinal, and leg stripes. 



30 Some details are given in ' The 

 Farrier,' 1828, pp. 452, 455. One of the 

 least ponies I ever saw, of the colour of 

 a mouse, had a conspicuous spinal 



stripe. A small Indian chesnut pony 

 had the same stripe, as had a remark- 

 ably heavy cliesnut cart-horse. Bace- 

 horses often have the spinal stripe. 



