Chap. II. 



THEIR COLOURS AND STRIPES. 59 



leg-stripes Burmese and Javanese ponies are frequently dun-coloured, 

 and have the three kinds of stripes, "in the same degree as in England-"" 

 Mr Swinhoe informs me that he examined two light-dun ponies of two 

 Chinese breeds, viz. those of Shangai and Amoy ; both had the spinal stripe, 

 and the latter an indistinct shoulder-stripe. 



We thus see that in all parts of the world breeds of the horse as different 

 as possible, when of a dun-colour (including under this term a wide range 

 of tint from cream to dusky black), and rarely when of bay, grey, and 

 chesnut shades, have the several above-specified stripes. Horses which 

 are of a yellow colour with white mane and tail, and which are sometimes 

 called duns, I have never seen with stripes. 34 



From reasons which will be apparent in the chapter on Eeversion, I 

 have endeavoured, but with poor success, to discover whether duns, which 

 are so much oftener striped than other coloured horses, are ever pro- 

 duced from the crossing of two horses, neither of which are duns. Most 

 persons to whom I have applied believe that one parent must be dun ; 

 and it is generally asserted, that, when this is the case, the dun-colour 

 and the stripes are strongly inherited. 35 One case has fallen under my 

 own observation of a foal from a black mare by a bay horse, which when 

 fully grown was a dark fallow-dun and had a narrow but plain spinal 

 stripe. Hofacker 36 gives two instances of mouse-duns (Mausrapp) being 

 produced from two parents of different colours and neither duns. 



I have also endeavoured with little success to find out whether the stripes 

 are generally plainer or less plain in the foal than in the adult horse. 

 Colonel Poole informs me that, as he believes, "the stripes are plainest 

 when the colt is first foaled ; they then become less and less distinct till 

 after the first coat is shed, when they come out as strongly as before ; but 

 certainly often fade away as the age of the horse increases." Two other 

 accounts confirm this fading of the stripes in old horses in India. One 

 writer, on the other hand, states that colts are often born without stripes, 

 but that they appear as the colt grows older. Three authorities affirm that 

 in Norway the stripes are less plain in the foal than in the adult. Perhaps 

 there is no fixed rule. In the case described by me of the young foal which 

 was narrowly striped over nearly all its body, there was no doubt about 

 the early and complete disappearance of the stripes. Mr. W. W. Edwards 

 examined for me twenty-two foals of race-horses, and twelve had the 

 spinal stripe more or less plain; this fact, and some other accounts which 

 I have received, lead me to believe that the spinal stripe often disappears 

 in the English race-horse when old. On the whole I infer that the stripes 

 are genci ally plainest in the foal, and tend to disappear in old age. 



The stripes are variable in colour, but are always darker 

 than the rest of the body. They do not by any means always 



33 Mr. (t. Clark, in 4 Annal and Mag. 34 See, also, on this point, ' The Field,' 



of Nat, J listorv/ 2nd series, vol. ii., 1848, July 27th, 1861, p. 91. 



p. 363. Mr. Wallace informs me that 35 ' The Field,' 1861, pp. 431, 493, 545. 



he saw in Java a dun and clay-coloured 36 ' Ueber die Eigenschaften/ &c, 



horse with spinal and leg stripes. 1828, s. 13, 14. 



