96 THE QUEST FOR THE WILD HORSE 
perfection. Of course nothing could be more con- 
trary to probabilities. “Wild” animals, compared 
with domesticated descendants of the same species, 
occupy 'much the same position as “ wild ” plants do 
to their descendants in the garden ; and the absence 
of fine legs and a flowing mane in the Equus 
Prejvalskii made the place assigned to it as the 
ancestor of the modern horse all the more probable. 
Now the news comes that the wild horse of Prejvalski 
has been seen, hunted, and captured by two Russian 
travellers, the brothers Grum-Grizimailo, and that 
four specimens have been brought to the Zoological 
Gardens of St. Petersburg from their Central Asian 
home. These creatures are said to correspond in all 
respects with the skin obtained by Prejvalski, and to 
represent the ancestors of all our modern horses. 
From a picture of the animal which appeared in the 
Graphic , there seems some reason to doubt whether 
they may not, after all, be only a variety of the kiang, 
or wild ass of Turkestan. They have the ass’s hog- 
mane, and a tail in which the long hairs, though not 
confined to the tip, do not begin to grow until some 
inches from the root. Neither has the animal any 
forelock. On the other hand, the ears are short, not 
long, as in all the ass tribe, and the square shoulder 
is not more characteristic of the asses than of all 
neglected breeds of horses. Moreover, it is a 
commonplace in natural history, that the primitive 
characteristics are shown in the young ; and the thin 
tail, short neck, and head set on so as to make an 
