296 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Seas. 
It is generally assumed that slender-limbed domestic breeds are the 
descendants of a coarse-limbed wild species. Of this, however, there is no 
evidence. At the beginning of the Pliocene period there were slender- 
limbed species in America (e.g., Pliohippus). At a somewhat later period 
a slender-limbed true horse ( Eqnns sivalensis) made its appearance to the 
south of the Himalayas; towards the close of the Pliocene there were 
Fig. 13. — Metacarpal nat. size) of a 
12 ’2 hands slender-limbed horse of 
the ‘ ‘ plateau ” or E. agilis type. 
The total length is 7 '5 times the 
width at middle of shaft. 
Fig. 14. — Metacarpal (J nat. size) of a 
12*3 hands coarse-limbed horse of the 
“forest” or E. robustus type. The 
length is 5 *5 times the width of shaft. 
slender-limbed wild species in Italy and France, and slender-limbed species 
inhabited Europe during the Neolithic, Bronze, and La Tene periods.* 
Evidence of the existence of small fine-boned horses in Italy during Pliocene 
times we have in metacarpals from the valley of the Arno. One of these 
metacarpals is 220 mm. long by 30 mm. wide, another has a length of 
* A metatarsal found at Spandau near Berlin measures 237 mm., and has a width at 
the middle of the shaft of 25 mm. In this Bronze age cannon bone (which belonged to a 
horse about 12T hands high) the length is 9*48 times the width, as in a very fine-boned 
small Arab which I received some years ago from Mr W. Scawen Blunt. 
