400 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the animal from the contiguous regions of Palestine and Baby- 

 lonia. He recalls the biblical description of the possessions of 

 Job as consisting of Sheep, Camels, and Oxen, his only equine 

 possessions being five hundred she-Asses, not a single Horse 

 being mentioned ; nor does he believe that the Sabaeans, who 

 are described as destroying the flocks and herds of the patient 

 sheikh, were any better provided with Horses than they were 

 in the days of Strabo. A similar comment is made on the 

 animal possessions of Terah, Abraham, Lot, and Laban, in the 

 enumerations of which no mention of the Horse occurs ; and 

 Prof. Eidgeway quotes with approval the opinion of Hilprecht, 

 that "the Horse appears in Babylonia first shortly before the 

 middle of the second millennium." Mr. Lydekker's theory of 

 the Indian origin of the Arab Horse is considered sufficiently 

 disproved by the fact that, " as the Horses of Libya were pro- 

 verbial for their gentleness before the Christian era, so, on the 

 contrary, the Horses of North-western India are specially men- 

 tioned by iElian on account of their violent tempers and the 

 difficulty of riding them, which necessitated the use not merely 

 of bits but of muzzles to control them." 



Of the colour of the thoroughbred Horse, it has already been 

 pointed out by Major-General Tweedie that the tendency of the 

 highest breeding in latitudes far separated is to wipe out all 

 colours save bay and chestnut. Prof. Eidgeway gives statistics 

 derived from the colours of the first three Horses in the Deibj, 

 Oaks, and St. Leger for the three decades from 1870 to 1899, as 

 proving that not merely has grey disappeared altogether, and 

 that black is almost gone, but that chestnut is also disappearing 

 as well as brown, while the English racing stock is steadily 

 becoming bay. 



This book can be neglected neither by the naturalist, horse- 

 breeder, nor sportsman, while there is sufficient archaeological 

 and classical discussion to engage the attention of scholarly 

 readers. 



