1909.] Horses living under Domestication. 



397 



fjord horses of Norway are mainly a blend of the Celtic and " forest " types, 

 that the Shetland ponies, though usually having the conformation of the 

 " forest " or E. rolustus type, are in part of Celtic origin, and that some of 

 the mouse-dun Tarpans of the Eussian steppes are a nearly equal blend of 

 the Celtic and E. przewalskii types. 



Prof. Eidgeway arrived at the conclusion that in the fine bay horse of 

 North Africa there is a frequent tendency to stripes on the back, legs, 

 shoulders, and face, to a blaze on the forehead and to white " bracelets," 

 Experiments made with four types of Arabs and with Eussian, Mongolian, 

 Indian, and Borneo ponies, English, Irish, Iceland, and Norse ponies support 

 the view that the Pleistocene ancestor of the modern slender-limbed ponies 

 with short-pillared molars was of a yellow or bay-dun colour with a narrow 

 dorsal band and bars on the legs, but had neither " bracelets " nor a blaze. 

 As stripes are most numerous on broad-browed horses, they have probably in 

 most cases been inherited from ancestors of the E. robustus or E. sivalensis 

 types. 



As to the part played by E. gracilis libycus in forming domestic breeds, 

 nothing very definite has been made out : Prof. Eidgeway says all the 

 improved breeds of the world are a blend in varying degrees of the bay 

 horse of North Africa with thick-set, slow, dun and white horses of Europe 

 and Asia allied to E. przewalskii. A number of hybrids bred at Woburn by 

 the Duke of Bedford afford little, if any, evidence in support of the view 

 that Barbs, Arabs, or Thoroughbreds include amongst their ancestors horses 

 of the Prejvalsky or " steppe " type. 



Slender-limbed horses with a wide flat forehead and a nearly straight 

 profile appear to be a blend of E. gracilis libycus (Eidgeway's E. caballus 

 libycus) and horses of the E. robustus (" forest ") type, while slender-limbed 

 strains with a fine narrow face, a well set-on tail, and a mane that clings to 

 the neck, probably most accurately reproduce the variety of E. gracilis which 

 in prehistoric times inhabited North Africa. 



