ON SKULLS OF HORSES FROM THE ROMAN FORT AT NEWSTEAD. 585 



hind chestnuts. The horses in South Mexico of the riding type are, as a rule, bays with 

 dark points, without either a dorsal band or bars on the legs, with the tail in a line 

 with the backbone, but not set-on high, as in many Arabs, and the hind chestnuts and 

 ergots frequently absent. I have never seen an Arab or a Barb without hind chest- 

 nuts, and I have only heard of one English thoroughbred without hind chestnuts. 



An Iceland, a Shetland, or a Highland pony may in make very closely agree with a 

 Forest horse, and yet be without hind chestnuts or ergots, or both. A horse without 

 hind chestnuts or ergots is hence not necessarily a member of the Plateau variety ; but 

 when, in any given district or breed, these callosities are frequently absent, it may be 

 assumed there is a decided substratum of Plateau blood. 



It is rather remarkable that the chestnuts are frequently absent in Mexican ponies, 

 and rarely absent in Arabs, Barbs, and thoroughbreds. Is the explanation, that the 

 Celtic variety was at one time common in Spain, from whence come the progenitors of 

 the horses of Mexico ; or is it that, as the Dongola variety of Sanson is a blend of the 

 Plateau and Steppe varieties, Kidgeway's Libyan variety is now almost invariably more 

 or less saturated with Forest blood ? 



I have come across few horses from North Africa without a trace of Steppe blood. 

 One such horse may be said to prove his Steppe origin by his foals invariably having a 

 very long face. When, however, horses having the points of Sanson's Dongola race are 

 crossed with mares of the Celtic type, they often have offspring which in make very 

 closely approach Ridgeway's ideal Libyan. Crosses of this kind met with in North 

 Mexico were frequently without ergots, and in some cases the hind chestnuts were 

 either very small or absent. A great many Arabs, especially white Arabs, with a short 

 back, a high set-on tail, and narrow hoofs, have a distinct affinity to the Steppe 

 variety, while others have the long back and the short broad face of the Forest variety. 

 A chestnut stallion built on the Forest type, for some time in my possession, was the 

 fastest and best-tempered Arab I have ever come across, while a bay stallion, nearly as 

 fast as the chestnut, imported by Lord Arthur Cecil, had also Forest affinities — the 

 dorsal band was distinct, and there were clear-cut bars in the vicinity of the knees and 

 hocks. In both these stallions the hind chestnuts were large, and all the four ergots 

 were present. The short-backed Arabs, often longer in the limbs and in the neck than 

 Arabs of the Forest type, are frequently without ergots, and the hind chestnuts are often 

 small. Those short-backed Arabs have not, as far as I have seen, a tendency to stripes, 

 neither have they the tail, as a rule, set-on specially high ; and though gifted with 

 wonderful staying power, they are not, as far as my experience goes, as fleet as Arabs 

 with an affinity to the Forest variety. 



For want of material it has not been possible to make much progress with a study 

 of the English thoroughbred. But from an examination of the skeletons of Stockwell 

 (British Museum), and Orlando (College of Surgeons Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields), 

 and of a number of skulls, it is evident that though the Plateau variety forms the 

 foundation of the English race-horse, it is frequently saturated with Steppe blood, i.e. 



