CHAPTER IX. 



HABITS AND HAIR OF UNGULATES. 



Horses. 



The Ungulate order has been variously divided by zoologists, 

 and is still said to be composed of two main sections, even-toed 

 and odd-toed Ungulates, with the addition of a good many " out- 

 siders " if one may use the term. 



These sections form two sub-orders, and the division suits 

 my purpose here very well. I take the odd-toed sub-order of the 

 Ungulata Vera first. 



Lessons from the Domestic Horse. 



The domestic horse is the only member of this section that 

 requires detailed attention, and its value for studying the direction 

 of the mammalian hair is great, on account of the immense number 

 of specimens available, the quality and varied distribution of its 

 hair, the size of the animal, and, most of all, our intimate knowledge 

 of its habits of life for many thousands of years. 



Many volumes have been written by man about this, his best 

 and second oldest friend among lower animals. His ancestry, 

 his story as servant of man, his virtues, strength, speed, intelligence, 

 his use for war and peace, his colour, varieties of breed and money 

 value ; his anatomy, physiology, pathology, his medicine and surgery- 

 have all been written by many able men. Indeed before the great 

 revelation of what man can be and do that the great war has given 

 us, many observers of mankind were prepared to adapt the saying 

 of a French cynic and to declare : " The more I see of men the 

 better I like horses." Swift at any rate came near this in his bitter 

 account of a voyage to the Houyhnhnms, which lasted sixteen 

 years and seven months, towards the end of which he said : " For 

 who can read of the virtues I have mentioned in the glorious 

 Houyhnhnms without being ashamed of his own vices, when he 

 considers himself as the reasoning governing animal of his country ? " 

 But in all these writings, even in that last striking book by Mr. 

 Roger Pocock, Horses, little or no attention is given to the patterns 

 of its coat from the point of view of science. I remember reading 



