Si 



THE HORSE 



Though grey is the prevailing colour of this species, 

 many varieties of that colour occur, and instances of 

 every shade between it and pure white on the one hand, 

 and dark brown or black on the other, are met with. 

 The dark, vertical stripe on the shoulder varies much 

 in breadth and intensity of colouring : sometimes it is 

 double, and not infrequently altogether absent. The 

 median dorsal stripe is usually conspicuous. In size, 

 also, there are great differences, the asses used by the 

 lowest caste people of the north of India being scarcely 

 larger than a Newfoundland dog : and in Southern 

 Europe, especially Spain, Italy, and Malta, they are 

 greatly superior ; while careful selective breeding in 

 Kentucky has raised their height to 15 or even 16 

 hands. These large varieties are chiefly in request for 

 the purpose of breeding mules. The milk of the ass, 

 containing more sugar and less caseine than that of 

 the cow, has long been valued as a nutritious diet for 

 persons of weak digestion. Mounteney Jephson says 

 there are great herds of donkeys in a district to the 

 east of the Dinka country, which the natives only use 

 for milking, and not as beasts of burden. 1 



The ass, unlike the wild horse, is not indigenous in 

 Europe. In England, there is evidence of its presence 

 so early as the reign of the Saxon Ethelred, but it does 



1 Emut Pasha and the Rebellion at the Equator, 1890, p. 96. 



