Chap. II. THEIR COLOURS AND STRIPES. 63 



thus striped; with the ass we may confidently advance this 

 explanation, for the parent form, the A. taeniopus, is known to 

 be barred, though only in a slight degree, across the legs. The 

 stripes are believed to occur most frequently and to be plainest on 

 the legs of the domestic ass during early youth, 42 as is apparently 

 likewise the case with the horse. The shoulder-stripe, which is 

 so eminently characteristic of the species, is nevertheless variable 

 in breadth, length, and manner of termination. I have measured 

 a shoulder-stripe four times as broad as another ; and some more 

 than twice as long as others. In one light-grey ass the shoulder- 

 stripe was only six inches in length, and as thin as a piece of 

 string ; and in another animal of the same colour there was 

 only a dusky shade representing a stripe. I have heard of three 

 white asses, not albinoes, with no trace of shoulder or spinal 

 stripes ; 43 and I have seen nine other asses with no shoulder- 

 stripe, and some of them had no spinal stripe. Three of the 

 nine were light-greys, one a dark-grey, another grey passing into 

 reddish-roan, and the others were brown, two being tinted on 

 parts of their bodies with a reddish or bay shade. Hence we 

 may conclude that, if grey and reddish-brown asses had been 

 steadily selected and bred from, the shoulder-stripe would have 

 been almost as generally and as completely lost as in the case of 

 the horse. 



The shoulder-stripe on the ass is sometimes double, and 

 Mr. Blyth has seen even three or four parallel stripes. 44 I have 

 observed in ten cases shoulder-stripes abruptly truncated at the 

 lower end, with the anterior angle produced into a tapering 

 point, precisely as has been figured in the dun Devonshire 

 pony. I have seen three cases of the terminal portion abruptly 

 and angularly bent ; and two cases of a distinct though slight 

 forking. In Syria, Dr. Hooker and his party observed for me no 

 less than five instances of the shoulder-stripe being plainly forked 

 over the fore leg. In the common mule it is likewise some- 

 times forked. When I first noticed the forking and angular 

 bending of the shoulder-stripe, I had seen enough of the stripes 



42 Blyth, in • Charlesworth's Mag. of ' The Horse,' p. 205. 



Nat. Hist.,' vol. iv., 1840, p. 83. I have 44 « j 0U mal As. Soc. of Bengal,' vol. 



also been assured by a breeder that this xxviii. 1860, p. 231. Martin on tbe 



is the case. Horse? p 205 



43 One case is given by Martin, 



