250 



Dr. J. C. Ewart. 



they had almost vanished. Unfortunately, the foal died when about 

 five months old, and hence it is impossible to say whether any of the 

 stripes would have persisted. It will be evident that Mulatto's second 

 -foal helped but little to clear up the vexed " infection " problem. 

 Mulatto missed having a foal in 1898, but she recently produced at 

 Knole, Kent, her third foal. The sire (Loch Corrie) of this foal 

 belongs to the Island of Rum section of the West Highland ponies, 

 and closely resembles Mulatto. The third foal has about as many 

 stripes as the second. As in the second, they are most distinct over 

 the croup and hind quarters ; and as in the second, they differ both 

 from the markings in the previous sire, the zebra, and from the 

 markings of the hybrid Romulus. 



This third foal, which was born on the 6th of May, 1899, seemed 

 like the second, to lend some support to the " infection" hypothesis. 

 Fortunately, since it made its appearance, two other West Highland 

 mares have had foals to Loch Corrie. These foals put all doubt as to 

 the nature and significance of the stripes on Mulatto's second and 

 third foals at an end. 



One of the clams is of a brown colour, the other is nearly black. 

 Though neither the brown dam nor the black has ever seen a zebra, 

 both foals are marked in very much the same way as Mulatto's, and 

 some of the stripes in one of the new foals look more like persisting 

 than the stripes on Mulatto's third foal. Hence, in order to account 

 for the markings on Mulatto's foal to the grey Arab, and on her foal 

 to the black West Highland pony, it is unnecessary to fall back on the 

 " infection " hypothesis. 



" III. Experiments with Shetland, Iceland, Irish, Thoroughbred, 

 and other Ponies." By J. C. Ewart. 



An effort was made to cross four Shetland ponies with the zebra 

 stallion, but I only succeeded in obtaining one hybrid. The dam 

 (Nora) of this hybrid closely resembles, except in size, the Island of^ 

 Rum ponies — she is a small edition of Mulatto. Her first foal, by a 

 black Shetland pony, was of a dun colour and nearly as striped as 

 Sir Gore Ouseley's filly ; her second is the most zebra-like of all my 

 hybrids ; her third closely resembles her sire, a bay Welsh pony. For 

 some time after birth there were faint indications of stripes over the 

 hind quarters of this foal, but now it is a year old there are no mark- 

 ings or any other suggestions of a zebra. It is not a little suggestive 

 that the foal bred from this pony before she was mated with the zebra 

 was distinctly striped, while the subsequent pure bred foal has no 

 stripes. 



Of five Iceland ponies put to the zebra only one produced a hybrid. 

 This hybrid was faintly striped, and showed less of the zebra than any 



