128 DISTINCT SPECIES PRESENT [Chap. V, 



in the foal, and, from inquiries which I have made, I believe this 

 to be true. The stripe on the shoulder is sometimes double, and 

 is Tery variable in length and outline. A white ass, but not an 

 albino, has been described without either spinal or shoulder stripe : 

 and these stripes are sometimes very obscure, or actually quite lost, 

 in dark-coloured asses. The koulan of Pallas is said to have been 

 seen with a double shoulder-stripe. Mr. Blyth has seen a specimen 

 of the hemionus with a distinct shoulder-stripe, though it properly 

 has none ; and I have been informed by Colonel Poole that the 

 foals of this species are generally striped on the legs, and faintly on 

 the shoulder. The quagga, though so plainly barred like a zebra 

 over the body, is without bars on the legs ; but Dr. Gray has figured 

 one specimen with very distinct zebra-like bars on the hocks. 



With respect to the horse, I have collected cases in England of 

 the spinal stripe in horses of the most distinct breeds, and of all 

 colours : transverse bars on the legs are not rare in duns, mouse- 

 duns, and in one instance in a chestnut : a faint shoulder-stripe may 

 sometimes be seen in duns, and I have seen a trace in a bay horse. 

 My son made a careful examination and sketch for me of a dun 

 Belgian cart-horse with a double stripe on each shoulder and witk 

 leg-stripes ; I have myself seen a dun Devonshire pony, and a 

 small dun Welsh pony has been carefully described to me, both 

 with three parallel stripes on each shoulder. 



In the north-west part of India the Kattywar breed of horses is 

 so generally striped, that, as I hear from Colonel Poole, who exa- 

 mined this breed for the Indian Government, a horse without stripes 

 is not considered as purely-bred. The spine is always striped ; the 

 legs are generally barred ; and the shoulder-stripe, which is some- 

 times double and sometimes treble, is common; the side of the 

 face, moreover, is sometimes striped. The stripes are often plainest 

 in the foal ; and sometimes quite disappear in old horses. Colonel 

 Poole has seen both gray and bay Kattywar horses striped when 

 first foaled. I have also reason to suspect, from information given 

 me by Mr. W. W. Edwards, that with the English race-horse the 

 spinal stripe is much commoner in the foal than in the full-grown 

 animal. I have myself recently bred a foal from a bay mare (off- 

 spring of a Turcoman horse and a Flemish mare) by a bay English 

 race-horse; this foal when a week old was marked on its hinder 

 quarters and on its forehead with numerous, very narrow, dark, 

 zebra-like bars, and its legs were feebly striped : all the stripes soon 

 disappeared completely. Without here entering on further details, 

 I may state that I have collected cases of leg and shoulder stripes 

 in horses of very different breeds in various countries from Britain to 



