80 INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



to his sense of smell for his safety from foes (Pocock), and very 

 much less so on his sight. Indeed that writer says his range of 

 good vision is about six yards. At that range his sight is of great 

 value to him for protection from certain of the dangers of his life, 

 and we see in a domestic horse to-day the evidence of his past 

 wild life by his rapid and keen glances at objects at the sides of the 

 road, both when we ride and drive him. His corrugator muscle 

 must be almost constantly in action. But his sense of smell is 

 the sling and stone with which he encounters his Goliaths before 

 they can get near him, and he ceaselessly expands and draws up his 

 flexible nostrils employing his nasalis and his maxillaris for snuffing 

 the air. He has also much useful protection from his sense of 

 hearing and we all know how those mobile ears of his are hardly 

 ever at rest, pointing now forwards, now backwards, and again 

 outwards, as he goes on his way. The degree of these movements 

 is largely a matter of individual character and breeding. The 

 case for a conflict of forces in this region is, I submit, fully made 

 out, and it is easy to see that a radiating pattern of hair, such as 

 there is in the simple whoil, is only the natural outcome of all this 

 complex muscular action. The extension of the whorl upwards 

 in the shape of a feathering which is sufficiently common, indicates 

 that the struggle has been carried beyond the original battle-field 

 by the muscles of the ears. 



The pectoral (Fig. 30) pattern lies over the great fleshy masses 

 formed by the pectoral muscles, which draw the fore-limbs upwards 

 and inwards in conjunction with others in the actions of flexion 

 and extension of these limbs. The patterns, A. B. C, are wide 

 expansions of reversed hair beginning in the whorl (A), extending 

 (B) upwards and terminated in a crest (C). This pattern is, like 

 the frontal, invariably present in a domestic horse, and is shared 

 by many other ungulates such as deer and antelopes, as mentioned 

 in the appendix of a small book 1 , I published in 1901. But in 

 none is it so striking or definite as in the horse. The contractions 

 of these pectoral muscles and their jolt at each step are easily 

 observed in a trotting horse. It is interesting to compare this 

 pattern on the horse's pectoral region with what is found on the 

 closely allied ass and mule. In the horse it is long and wide and 

 never absent, and is especially well -developed in high -stepping 

 horses whether cart-horses or others selected because of their high 

 action in trotting. Its size, indeed, is a measure of the activity of 

 the pectoral muscles and flexors of the fore-limb. In the ass it is 



1 Use-Inheritance. A. & C. Black. Direction of Hair. 



