ON ZHBRA-HORSE HYBRIDS. 55 
a ditch, reins and bits counting for little or nothing. In schooling 
the hybrids, this habit will require to be allowed for, and the 
tendency to bound or rush slowly combated. As it has been 
completely overcome by careful training in some Zebras, there 
should be comparatively little difficulty in breaking the hybrids. 
As a matter of fact, Romulus leads anywhere, is perfectly docile, 
allows his feet to be trimmed and his teeth to be examined, and, 
when little more than a year old, seemed quite willing to carry a 
small boy on his back. 
I mentioned Mulatto is just under 13 hands, while the Zebra 
sire is nearly 12.3 hands. At birth (August 12th, 1896) Romulus 
measured 344 in. (from the withers to the ground); at two 
months 382 in.; at six months 43 in.; and at twelve months 
453 in. The rate of growth has been extremely inconstant,— 
e.g. from the 12th of February to the 12th of April he only 
increased half an inch,* and from the 12th of June, 1897, to the 
12th of September, 1897, he only increased three-quarters of an 
inch}; but from the 12th of September, 1897, to the 12th of 
December, 1897, he increased one and a quarter inches. He 
now measures (January 12th) 473 in., nearly 12 hands, and the 
circumference of the fore-shank is 6% in., the knee being 10 in., 
and the girth 524 in. 
The foals of the black Island of Rum ponies are frequently of 
a mouse-dun colour, with at times an indistinct dorsal band, and 
a cloudy patch over the shoulder. Usually after the first coat is 
shed the pure-bred foals are dark brown, and later nearly black, 
with sometimes indistinct dappling over the flanks and hind 
quarters. As already mentioned, the body colour of Romulus at 
birth was chiefly of a yellow tint, the yellow approaching bright 
orange on the brow, while it approached a straw colour at the 
muzzle and below the knees and hocks. Under the neck and 
under the belly the prevailing body colour was dark brown, the 
ventral band being very indistinct. 
The ears were lined with fine bright orange-coloured hairs. 
When only a month old, the hybrid began to shed his foal’s coat. 
* He was weaned on the 14th of February, and fretted not a little for 
some time after. 
+ During the greater part of this period he was shedding his old and 
growing a new coat. 
