130 Distinct Species present Chap. v. 



What now are we to say to these several facts ? "We see several 

 distinct species of the horse-genus becoming, by simple variation, 

 striped on the legs like a zebra, or striped on the shoulders like an 

 ass. In the horse we see this tendency strong whenever a dun tint 

 appears— a tint which approaches to that of the general colouring; 

 of the other species of the genus. The appearance of the stripes is not 

 accompanied by any change of form or by any other new character. 

 We see this tendency to become striped most strongly displayed in 

 hybrids from between several of the most distinct species. Now 

 observe the case of the several breeds of pigeons : they are descended 

 from a pigeon (including two or three sub-species or geographical 

 races) of a bluish colour, with certain bars and other marks ; and when 

 any breed assumes by simple variation a bluish tint, these bars and 

 other marks invariably reappear ; but without any other change of 

 form or character. When the oldest and truest breeds of various 

 colours are crossed, we see a strong tendency for the blue tint, and bars 

 and marks to reappear in the mongrels. I have stated that the most 

 probable hypothesis to account for the reappearance of very ancient 

 characters, is — that there is a tendency in the young of each succes- 

 sive generation to produce the long-lost character, and that this. 

 tendency, from unknown causes, sometimes prevails. And we have 

 just seen that in several species of the horse-genus the stripes are 

 either plainer or appear more commonly in the young than in the 

 old. Call the breeds of pigeons, some of which have bred true for 

 centuries, species ; and how exactly parallel is the case with that of 

 the species of the horse-genus ! For myself, I venture confidently 

 to look back thousands on thousands of generations, and I see an 

 animal striped like a zebra, but perhaps otherwise very differently 

 constructed, the common parent of our domestic horse (whether or 

 not it be descended from one or more wild stocks) of the ass, the 

 hemionus, quagga, and zebra. 



He who believes that each equine species was independently 

 created, will, I presume, assert that each species has been created 

 with a tendency to vary, both under nature and under domestication, 

 in this particular manner, so as often to become striped like the 

 other species of the genus ; and that each has been created with 

 a strong tendency, when crossed with species inhabiting distant 

 quarters of the world, to produce hybrids resembling°in their 

 stripes, not their own parents, but other species of the genus. To 

 admit this view is, as it seems to me, to reject a real for an unreal, 

 or at least for an unknown, cause. It makes the works of God a 

 mere mockery and deception ; I would almost as soon believe with 

 the old and ignorant cosmogonists, that fossil shells had never lived, 



