18 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
Hebrides with a massive head, and long mane like the Moscow 
Tarpan, the tail consists of three distinct sections ; and that in a 
mare (PI. III. 10) obtained by crossing an Arab with a yellow-dun 
Norwegian (fjord) stallion, and in a colt out of a half Arab mare 
by a similar stallion, the tail forcibly reminds one of the Tarpan 
obtained by crossing a Shetland mare with a Welsh stallion. 1 
A study of the mane and tail of the Shetland- Welsh cross, and 
of certain other crosses and breeds, strongly suggests that we must 
include amongst the ancestors of our domestic horses a species 
having a mane and tail such as we find in the wild horse still 
living in Central Asia. In the body hair and the foot-locks the 
Scottish Tarpan closely resembles the wild horse. Further, it 
resembles the wild horse in having a very short flank feather, but 
differs in having the face whorl (PI. I. 3) situated above the 
level of the eyes, as in the Celtic pony: in Prejvalsky’s horse as 
in the kyang this whorl lies well below the level of the orbits. 
In the Shetland mare the dorsal band is nearly as narrow as in 
the Celtic pony (PL II. 6) ; the right hind chestnut measures P5 cm. 
by *4 cm., while the left is only *5 cm. in diameter; the front 
ergots are absent, and the hind ergots are very small. In all 
these points the Shetland mare approaches the Celtic type. In 
the Scottish Tarpan the front ergots are small, the hind normal ; 
the front chestnuts are oval as in the wild horse, but decidedly 
smaller, while the hind chestnuts are only one-fifth the length of 
those in the wild horse. Finally, in the head, ears, form of the 
limbs and hoofs, the Tarpan-like Shetland- Welsh cross is as 
nearly as possible intermediate between a wild horse and a Celtic 
pony. Of the skeleton it is, of course, impossible to speak, 
but judging by the shortness of the trunk, the form of the head, 
and the conformation of the limbs, the probability is that there 
are only five lumbar vertebrae, as in the Moscow and St Peters- 
burg skeletons, and that the skull and limb bones resemble those 
of a young Prejvalsky horse. After very full consideration, 
Salensky came to the conclusion that the Tarpan is a type 
1 Seeing that the mane and tail in various breeds, in the Old World and 
also in the New, often suggest the Tarpan, it may be inferred that the 
ancestors of the Tarpan were intimately related to the ancestors of some of 
the domesticated breeds. 
