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THE HORSE
and
ITS RELATIVES
BY
R. LYDEKKER, F.R.S.
AUTHOR OF
THE GAME ANIMALS OF AFRICA," "THE GAME ANIMALS OF
INDIA, ETC.," "THE DEER OF ALL LANDS," "A
GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF MAMMALS,"
"THE OX AND ITS KINDRED," ETC.
; -
CAU • - i -
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & CO. LTD.
1912
1
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON 6* Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
PREFACE
THE following popular, and yet, I hope, scientifi-
cally accurate, account of the natural history of the
more important representatives of the horse family,
inclusive of the older domesticated breeds and its
extinct forerunners, will, I venture to think, appeal
Co a large circle of readers. For breeders, racing
men, antiquarians, naturalists, and big-game hunters
ought all to find something of interest.
It should be emphasised that only the natural
aspect of the subject is dealt with, such side-issues
as the legendary history of the horse, horse-sacrifice,
the acquisition and development of the art of riding
and driving, the training and management of horses,
being left untouched.
Several difficult and debatable points are pur-
posely left undecided, as I have preferred to quote
the various opinions expressed by different writers,
rather than to assert my own views.
For the illustrations I am especially indebted to
the Trustees of the British Museum ; but I have
also to express my acknowledgments to the
Duchess of Bedford, Prof. R. S. Lull, Dr. E. L.
V
251113
vi PREFACE
Trouessart; Mr. Theodore A. Cook — both in his
private capacity and as editor of The Field — Prof.
J. C. Ewart, and several other friends and corre-
spondents.
Since the text was in type, Mr. R. I. Pocock
has pointed out (The Field, Jan. 20, 1912, p. 143)
that the aperture of a scent-gland situated on the
posterior aspect of the hind-foot of the Indian rhino-
ceros occupies a position very nearly similar to that
of the ergot in the foot of the horse (infra, p. 41).
" The .orifice of [this gland," he writes, "is placed
suggestively near the spot corresponding to that
occupied by the ergot in horses, and despite the
accepted view that the ergot is a sole of the. foot,
the possibility of its representing an aborted gland
may be wisely borne in mind. Its general resem-
blance to the warts or chestnuts on the legs of
horses, which most authorities regard as degener-
ated glandular structures, is quite in keeping with
this suggestion."
R. LYDEKKER.
HARPENDEN LODGE, HERTS,
January 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGK
I. THE ZOOLOGICAL POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF
THE HORSE ...... i
II. »THE WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS . . 71
III., HORSES AND PONIES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS . 117
I V., SOME FOREIGN BREEDS . . . . .136
V. .THE ARAB STOCK .15°
VI. . FERAL HORSES 17°
VII., THE KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP . . .176
VIII. .ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS ..... 187
IX. ,THE Ass . . . . . . . . 215
X. MULES AND OTHER HYBRIDS . . . .22$
XI. THE EXTINCT FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE . 239
INDEX . .283
vii
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
PLATE FACING PAGE
I. FIG. i. CANNON AND SPLINT BONES OF SHIRE
HORSE. ....... 14
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family)
. 2. BONES OF FORE AND HIND FEET OF
" MIOHIPPUS " ...... „
(After LULL)
II. SKELETON OF THOROUGHBRED STALLION
"ECLIPSE" ....... 16
(COOK, " Eclipse and O' Kelly")
III. FIG. i. SKELETON OF FORE-LIMBS OF " ECLIPSE " 18
FIG. 2. SKELETON OF HIND-LIMBS OF "ECLIPSE" „
s, scapula ; ht humerus ; », ulna ; r, radius ; c,
carpus (knee) ; can, cannon-bone \ph, phalanges ;
p, pelvis ; /, femur ; /.tibia; ca, calcaneum (hock)
{Both from COOK)
IV. FIG. i. SKULL OF SHIRE STALLION . . .22
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family)
FIG. 2. SKULL OF QUAGGA . „
V. FIG. i. RIGHT UPPER CHEEK-TEETH OF TARPAN 34
FIG. 2. RIGHT UPPER CHEEK-TEETH OF ARAB „
/.2-/.4, premolars; tn.i-m.^, molars;/, anterior
pillar ; hy, posterior pillar
VI. FIG. i. HIND- FOOT OF HORSE SHOWING ERGOT 44
FIG. 2. CHESTNUTS ON LEGS OF HORSE . . „
(Both from " Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family")
ix
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE FACING PAGE
VII. FIG. i. FRONTLET OF HORSE WITH HORN-LIKE
PROMINENCES 60
FIG. 2. PREHISTORIC TARPAN OR WILD HORSE „
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family]
VIII. FIG. i. A MONGOLIAN MARE . • . .88
FIG. 2. A TARPAN MARE. . . . . „
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family]
IX. FIG. i. SKULL OF TARPAN MARE . . ; 94
FIG. 2. SKULL OF ARAB MARE. . ... „
(Both from " Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family ")
X. FIG. i. A NORWEGIAN DUN STALLION . .104
FIG. 2. A MONGOLIAN POLO PONY „
(From " The Field"}
XI. FIG. i. NEW FOREST PONIES . . . .118
FIG. 2. SHETLAND PONIES » ; '• \ . , „
(Both from photos, by C. REID)
XII. FIG. i. A SUFFOLK STALLION . • . • .128
FIG. 2. A SHIRE STALLION „
(Photos, by C. REID)
XIII. FIG. i. A PERCHERON STALLION . . .138
(From a French Journal)
FIG. 2. A BELGIAN STALLION „
(From a Brussels Journal)
XIV. FIG. i. THE DARLEY ARABIAN. . . . 152
(From the Picture at Aldby Park]
FIG. 2. THE THOROUGHBRED STALLION "PER-
SIMMON" ,r
(From " The Field"}
ILLUSTRATIONS xi
PLATE FACING PAGE
XV. FIG. i. THE KIANG 178
FIG. 2. KOBDO ONAGER „
(Both from "Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family"}
XVI. FIG. i. GREVY'S ZEBRA 188
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family)
FIG. 2. HEAD OF GREVY'S ZEBRA . . • „
XVII. FIG. i. THE QUAGGA 194
(Photo. YOUNG)
FIG. 2. MATABILI BONTEQUAGGA . „
(Photo. PROF. J. C. EWART)
XVIII. FIG. i. KILIMANJARO BONTEQUAGGA . . 200
(Photo. THE DUCHESS OF BEDFORD)
FIG. 2. MASAI BONTEQUAGGA „
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family)
XIX.- FIG. i. SKIN OF FOA'S ZEBRA . . . .210
FIG. 2. SKIN OF KILIMANJARO BONTEQUAGGA . „
(Photos. DR. E. L. TROUESSART)
XX. FIG. i. THE ZEBRA 214
FIG. 2. NUBIAN WILD Ass „
(Both from " Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family")
XXI. FIG. i. HYBRID BONTEQUAGGA AND PONY FOAL
AND DAM . . . . . . 234
(Photo. PROF. EWART)
FIG. 2. HYBRID ZEBRA AND ONAGER . . ,,
XXII. BONES OF FORE-FEET OF EXTINCT FORE-
RUNNER OF THE HORSE .... 246
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family)
xii ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE FACING PAGE
XXIII. SKELETON OF "HIPPIDIUM" .... 252
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family]
XXIV. FIG. i. SKULL OF " ONOHIPPIDIUM " . . 260
FIG. 2. MOLARS OF " EQUUS," " HIPPIDIUM,"
AND " HlPPARION " „
(Both from " Brit. Mus. Guide to Horse Family ")
TEXT-FIGURES
PAGE
BONES OF FORE-LEG OF HORSE AND RHINOCEROS . • 6
(Brit. Mus. Guide to Great Game)
SKULL OF PIG-LIKE ANIMAL, "ELOTHERIUM" . . 20
MOLARS OF SINGLE-TOED AND THRES-TOED HORSES . 33
THE ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
COMPARED . 240
(After Lull]
MILK-MOLARS AND PREMOLARS OF THE EXTINCT " MERYC-
HIPPUS" . 255
(After Lull)
BONES OF THE FORE AND HIND FEET OF THE EXTINCT
"HIPPARION" 257
(After Lull)
CROWN SURFACE OF UPPER MOLAR OF THE EXTINCT
" HlPPARION " 258
(After Lull)
BONES OF THE FORE AND HIND FEET OF THE EXTINCT
" HYPOHIPPUS " 261
(After Lull)
UPPER MOLAR TOOTH OF " ANCHITHERIUM " . . 267
BONES OF THE FORE AND HIND FEET OF THE EXTINCT
"Eomppus" 274
(After Lull)
BONES OF THE FORE AND HIND FEET OF THE EOCENE
"PHENACODUS" . . . . . .276
(After Lull)
THE HORSE AND ITS
RELATIVES
CHAPTER I
THE ZOOLOGICAL POSITION AND STRUCTURE
OF THE HORSE
THE difficulty which occurs in the case of the
ox 1 as to what is the proper English designation
of that animal does not arise in the present instance,
for although we not infrequently speak of a horse,
as distinct from a mare, there seems little doubt
that the former term is really a species-name, and
therefore applicable to both sexes of Equus caballus,
as the domesticated horse of Europe was called
by Linnaeus.
As to the origin of the name horse — the equiva-
lent of the Anglo-Saxon horsy the Frisian hars
or hors, the German ross, the Italian rozza, the
Old Saxon and Old German hros> and probably
the Persian ghor and the Hindustani ghora — there
has been some difference of opinion. It has been
stated, for instance, to take origin from the Sanskrit
1 See The Ox audits Kindred^ by R. Lydekker, London, 1912.
A
2 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
hresh, signifying to neigh, so that the horse means
the neighing animal.1 This derivation is, however,
not admitted in the Century Dictionary, where
the name is stated to be the equivalent of the
Anglo-Saxon hors, which signifies swiftness, and
is connected with the Latin currere, to run ; the
English term horse thus meaning the running
animal.
The Sanskrit name of the species is apua, which
appears to be the equivalent of the Hebrew SMS,
the Greek hippos (with its diminutives hipparion
and hippidiori), and the Latin equus. Another series
of names for the horse is represented by the Greek
kaballos, the Latin caballus, the Spanish caballo,
the Italian cavallo, and the French cheval. In
addition to these, we have the German pferd and
the Dutch paard. There is also the English name
pony, for a small horse, which may possibly be
connected with the undermentioned pullus.
As is commonly the case with domesticated
animals, there is also a large series of names to
denote the two sexes and the young of the horse.
Stallion, for instance, the English name of the
male of the species, is equivalent to the modern
French e'talon, the old French estallon, and the
Italian Stallone, or equus stallonis, the horse at stall.
Mare, the designation of the female, is derived
1 See The Studenfs English Dictionary, by J. Ogilvie, London,
1865.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 3
from the Anglo-Saxon myre or mere, a word which
appears to have been originally connected with
increase, but in a later sense indicated the female
of the strong animal. As regards the young, the
name foal — equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon fole,
the Latin pullus, and the Greek polos, all denoting
originally a young animal — is applicable to both
sexes. The word filly, on the other hand, which
likewise apparently comes from the Anglo-Saxon
fole, denotes a female foal ; whereas colt — an
Anglo-Saxon derivative probably connected with
did, a child — is applied solely to a foal of the
male sex. Finally, the term gelding signifies the
castrated male.
In this place it may be convenient to mention
that although the name horse properly belongs only
to the domesticated arid wild representatives of
Equus caballus, it is frequently employed by natu-
ralists in a more extensive sense. We speak, for
instance, of the Arabian horse ; and even if that
be, as some suppose, specifically distinct from the
ordinary horse of Western Europe, there is no
question that such usage is perfectly legitimate and
permissible. On the other hand, all the other ex-
isting members of the horse tribe, or Equidcz, have
distinctive names of their own, such as ass, zebra,
and quagga. Nevertheless, all these are often
called horses in works on natural history, although
the practice has its inconveniences ; and the term
4 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
members of the horse tribe is preferable. Similarly,
the name horse, as the denomination of the typical
member of the genus Equus, is very generally
applied to the extinct representatives of the same
genus or even of closely allied genera ; and there is
less objection to this practice than to the one last
mentioned, as there are no vernacular names for the
animals in question. The term three-toed horses
is, for instance, a convenient one for the members
of the extinct genus Hipparion, as it is not likely
to lead to confusion. On the other hand, the
word horse must have some limitation ; and the
American practice of applying ft to diminutive
ancestral types of the Equidce no larger than foxes
is one that is not to be commended. Since the
respective meanings of the terms species, genus,
family, order, &c., are explained in most works on
natural history, it will suffice in this place to state
that Equus caballus, as represented by the ordinary
domesticated horses of Western Europe, is the
typical representative of both the genus Equus
and the family Equidce. Both that family and the
Bovidce, or hollow-horned ruminants — of which the
ox is the typical member — belong to the great
order of hoofed mammals, or Ungulata, so called
from the feet of its more typical representatives
being encased in solid horny hoofs.
These more typical groups are divided into two
main sections or sub-orders, namely the even-toed
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 5
ungulates, or Artiodactyla, as typified by the ox,
and an equivalent, albeit at the present day much
smaller section, known as the odd-toed ungulates, or
Perissodactyla, of which the horse and its relatives
are the most specialised members. Although the
leading points of distinction between these sub-
orders have been indicated in my volume on the ox,
it is advisable that the characteristics of the second
should be repeated, as well as somewhat amplified,
in this place.
The odd-toed, or perissodactyle, ungulates take
their name from the circumstance that the toe
corresponding to- the middle finger of the human
hand and its representative in the hind-limb, to-
gether with the bone known as metacarpal in
the fore, and metatarsal in the hind leg, respec-
tively form the continuation of the main axis of
the limb, and are symmetrical in themselves. In
the horse and its immediate relatives this middle
toe is alone functionally developed in both the front
and hind legs ; but in the rhinoceroses, which
belong to the same sub-order, although to a different
family {RhinoceroticUe\ there is a pair of smaller
lateral toes, each of which, together with its
supporting metacarpal or metatarsal bone, is like-
wise symmetrical. Just as the middle toe of the
fore-leg corresponds to the middle or third finger of
the human hand, so the lateral toes of the rhinoceros
severally represent the second and fourth fingers
6 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
of man ; a similar correspondence to the toes of
the human foot obtaining, of course, in the hind-leg.
A practically identical correspondence obtains in
the hind-foot of the tapirs, which belong to the third
The bones of the lower part of the left fore-leg of a Horse (A)
and a Rhinoceros (B). r> lower end of radius or inner leg-bone ;
u, do. of ulna or outer leg-bone ; c , carpus or wrist ; me, meta-
carpal bones ; pk, phalanges or toe-bones ; n., in., iv., second,
third, and fourth toes, or (in A) the remnants of the metacarpals. /
In the horse me is known as the cannon-bone, the two upper
phalanges are termed pastern-bones, and the lower one is the
coffin-bone.
and last family ( Tapiridce) of living perissodactyles.
The front-foot of the tapir has, however, four toes, of
which the outermost represents the fifth, or little,
finger of the human hand.
The addition, or rather
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 7
the retention, of the outermost toe does not, how-
ever, affect the symmetry of the other three front-
toes ofv the tapir, which are arranged in just the
same manner as in the three-toed fore-foot of a
rhinoceros. \
As a whole, however, the skeleton of the fore-
foot of a tapir is obviously unsymmetrical, this
being due to the loss of the toe corresponding to
the human thumb, or first finger, as it should pro-
per lylbercalled. And it may be noted here that this
first toe has disappeared from both feet in all
members of the odd-toed group, extinct as well
as living, although it is developed in certain
primitive members of the ungulate order, of which
mention is made in the sequel.
This symmetrical development of the third toe
(inclusive of the supporting metacarpal in the fore
and the metatarsal in the hind limb) and its
superiority in size over either of the lateral ones,
when these are present, is the one great feature of
the skeleton by which the odd-toed ungulates, or
Perissodactyla, are distinguished from the even-
toed group, or Artiodactyla. In the latter group,
as is fully described in the volume on the ox, the
third and fourth toes are equal in size, and
developed symmetrically to one another on either
side of the vertical line between them. Conse-
quently, in that group the continuation of the main
axis of the limb is formed by the vertical line
8 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
dividing the third from the fourth toe, whereas
in the odd-toed group it is constituted by a line
running down the middle of the third toe.
This, although by far the most important, is,
however, by no means the sole character in which
the skeleton of an odd-toed differs from that of an
even-toed ungulate. One of the most easily recog-
nised of these minor skeletal differences is the
presence in the members of the odd-toed group
of a more or less strongly marked projection or
process on the outer side of the upper end of the
shaft of the femur, or thigh-bone, which is totally
absent in the even-toed group. Another, although
less obvious, difference is to be found in the shape
of the astragalus, or huckle-bone, of the tarsus, or
ankle-joint — the so-called hock of the horse. In the
Perissodactyla the lower surface of this bone is
markedly flattened, whereas in the Artiodactyla the
same surface is rounded and pulley-like : the vertical
diameter of the whole bone being also relatively
less in the former than in the latter group. Yet
another difference is to be found in the number
of joints, or vertebrae, in the backbone, or vertebral
column, of the two groups. In perissodactyles the
number of vertebrae between the skull and what
is known as the sacrum (that is to say, the con-
solidated mass of vertebrae to which the haunch-
bone, or pelvis, is attached) is never less than 29 and
is very generally 30, whereas in the artiodactyles
V
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 9
it is invariably 26. If we exclude from this enu-
meration the seven cervical vertebrae common
to all ungulates, this may be expressed in another
way by saying that whereas in the odd-toed group
the number of trunk- vertebrae may be 22 or 23, in
the even-toed group it is invariably 19.
Other differences in the skeleton, as well as
certain peculiarities in the teeth of the two groups,
need not be mentioned here ; but it may be
observed that no perissodactyle has the complex
type of stomach characteristic of the ruminating
artiodactyles.
Although, as already mentioned, the Perisso-
dactyla are represented at the present day only by
three families — the Equidce, Rhinocerotidcz, and
Tapiridce — the living members of each of which
may be included in a single genus, during the
Tertiary period they comprised several extinct
families and a large number of genera. Nor is
this all, for whereas, with the exception of the
tapirs, which are common to Malaya and Tropical
America, the group is nowadays restricted to the
Old World, in past times it was abundantly repre-
sented in the New World, where the three existing
families (together with certain extinct ones) occurred
in North America, while the Equidce succeeded in
effecting an entrance during the latter part of the
Tertiary period into South America.
Even this, however, does not represent the real
io THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
poverty of the odd-toed group at the present day,
for the three surviving families are remarkable for
the small number of their existing representatives.
The horse tribe, for instance, includes at the present
day only about eight or nine species, while the
rhinoceroses comprise five, and the tapirs another five,
or possibly six, specific types. The whole number
of living perissodactyles is thus well under a score.
In this poverty of families, genera, and species
the Perissodactyla present a remarkable contrast to
the Artiodactyla of the existing epoch, whose
specific representatives are between one and two
hundred in number, and are classed in no less than
nine or ten separate families, with a collectively
world-wide distribution — exclusive, of course, of
Australia. Despite the fact of its having lost a
large number of generic and family types, the
Artiodactyla may be regarded as a dominant type
at the present day, whereas the Perissodactyla are
as distinctly a waning group, so far, at least, as the
numerical abundance of genera and species is con-
cerned. What may have been the cause of this
difference in the two groups cannot yet be
determined.
As regards the characters by which the family
Equidce is distinguished from other groups of odd-
toed ungulates, there is no difficulty at all when
the existing representatives of the sub-order are
alone taken into consideration, since the horse and
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF
its immediate living relatives are broadly distin-
guished from all other modern mammals by the
reduction of the number of toes on each foot to
one. During the later part of the Tertiary, or
latest, period of geological history there existed,
however, a number of animals agreeing in all
essential characters with the modern horse and its
relatives, but with three toes to each foot, although
the lateral ones were so small as to be of no
functional importance. These three-toed horses,
of which there is more than one generic type, had
tall-crowned cheek-teeth differing from those of
the modern horse only in certain comparatively un-
important details of structure, and in the somewhat
inferior height of their crowns. Somewhat earlier
in the Tertiary are found remains of other three-
toed horse-like animals, which differ much more
markedly from the modern type. Among their
more salient differences are the relatively larger size
of the lateral toes, which, in some cases at any
rate, were at least partially of functional use ; and,
more important still, the quite short crowns of their
cheek-teeth.
Now in defining the Equida it is found con-
venient to take tallness of crown in the cheek-
teeth as the main distinctive character, and to
include in that family only those species in which
this feature is distinctly developed. The short-
crowned species are accordingly referred to separate
12 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
families, of which all the members are extinct : to
these fuller reference is made in the chapter on
the extinct relatives of the horse. It will of course
be obvious that if we had before us the whole of
the ancestral series of the horse, we should find
an absolutely complete gradation from types with
tall-crowned to those with short-crowned cheek-
teeth ; and it would consequently be impossible
to draw a hard-and-fast line between the two. In
that case it would be necessary to make an arbi-
trary line of division, as it is sufficiently obvious that
it is quite impossible to include all the ancestors
of a given mammal in a single family group ; as, if
this were attempted, we should find reptiles included
in the horse family, mammals being undoubtedly
descended from certain extinct, and to some extent
primitive, groups of reptiles.
The horse family, or Equidce, may, then, be
briefly defined as including such odd-toed or perisso-
dactyle ungulates as have tall-crowned cheek-teeth
of a peculiar and characteristic pattern (described
later on), and each foot terminating in a single
large functional toe, which, in the case of some
extinct species, may be flanked by a pair of much
smaller functionless toes. In the course of this
chapter other characters are noticed which may
likewise be used in the definition of the family,
although the two mentioned above are amply
sufficient for the purpose.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 13
All the members, whether living or extinct,
of the family, as thus restricted, come under the
denomination of what naturalists term highly special-
ised animals ; the specialisation in this instance
taking the form of adaptation for the attainment
of great speed in running, and likewise for grazing
on grass or other herbage.
Their specialisation is best observed in the
skeleton and teeth ; the former departing almost
as widely as possible from that of a generalised
animal, such, so far as the structure of the limbs
is concerned, as a bear.
In the latter animal each foot terminates
in five complete and functional toes, usually
armed with claws ; and in walking the entire
sole of the foot, inclusive of the heel-bone, or
calcaneum, in the hind-pair, is applied to the
ground.
In the horse and its existing relatives, together
with certain extinct species, such as the one of
which the skeleton is shown in plate xxiii., each
foot terminates in a single toe (encased during
life in a hoof), upon which alone the animal
walks ; this single toe, as already mentioned,
and as shown in the figure on page 6, corre-
sponding to the middle or third one of the
generalised five-toed type. Consequently the heel,
or ankle, technically known as the tarsus, in place
of resting on the ground, as in the bear, is raised
14 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
high above it — forming, in fact, in the horse the
so-called hock. Similarly in the fore-limb the wrist-
joint, or carpus, is raised to the same approximate
level above the ground, and constitutes the so-called
knee of the horse.
The single metacarpal bone (me in the figure,
on page 6) in the fore-leg of the horse is known
as the cannon-bone ; the same name being also
applied to the corresponding element in the hind-
leg, that is to say, the metatarsal bone. The
remnants of the lateral metacarpals (n., iv. in the
figure last cited) in the fore-leg, as well as those of
the corresponding metatarsals in the hind-limb, are
designated splint-bones. The degree of develop-
ment, or rather of the degeneration, of these splint-
bones varies considerably in different horses. In
many instances, as in the figure on page 6,
these bones represent merely the upper ends of
the metacarpals and metatarsals. In other cases,
as in the illustration of this part of the limb of a
shire horse (pi. i. fig. i) the whole shafts of the
splint-bones are retained, with remnants at the
lower end of the first and second toe-bones, or
phalanges (i, 2). This comparatively full develop-
ment of the splint-bones appears to be not un-
common in shire horses ; but remnants of the
toe-bones, which in all cases are firmly welded with
the splint-bones, are retained in the skeleton of
the famous racehorse " Stock well," of which the
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 15
limb- bones are exhibited in the Natural History
branch of the British Museum.
The figure of the bones of the feet of an extinct
three-toed horse is placed alongside that of the
cannon-bones of the shire horse in order to show
how the splint-bones and rudimentary toe-bones
of the latter correspond with the same bones in
a more fully developed condition in the former.
So far as can be ascertained, the splint-bones
of the horse and its existing relatives are of no use
to their owners, although there is just a possibility
that they may be of some slight service in mitigat-
ing shock. On the other hand, in domesticated
horses they are frequently harmful, since, through
inflammation and subsequent exostosis, they give
rise to the disease known as splint.
In this connection it is interesting to note that
a few years ago Professor La Van de Pas, of the
Agricultural and Veterinary Institute of Buenos
Aires, published an account x of a prevalent type
of degeneration in the splint-bones of Argentine
horses. In 1904 the author received the left hind
cannon-bone of a horse in which the outer splint-
bone was only half the normal length, its lower
portion being replaced by ligamentous tissue. The
other cannon-bones of this horse were not forth-
^coming, but in the course of the next few years
the author had the opportunity of examining a
1 Anales de Mus. National de Buenos Aires, ser. 3, vol. x.
16 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
considerable series of such bones. In a large
proportion of these a similar degeneration was
observed, sometimes in one and sometimes in both
splint-bones ; and it may accordingly be considered
that such atrophy is comparatively common in
Argentine horses. It is further noticeable that the
degeneration is more marked in the outer than in
the inner splint-bone, alike in the fore and the hind
limb. At the close of the descriptive portion of
the communication the author arrives at the con-
clusion that Argentine horses are endeavouring to
discard these seemingly useless portions of the
skeleton.
It may be added that in veterinary anatomy
the first and second phalanges, or toe-bones, of
the horse's foot are respectively termed the upper
and lower pastern-bones, while the enlarged
terminal bone which carries the hoof is known as
the coffin-bone. The last-named bone, it may be
noted, is much wider in the fore-foot than in the
hind-foot ; having almost the shape of a cheese-
cutter in the fore-leg. Another term employed in
veterinary works is fetlock, which denotes the
joint between the lower end of the cannon-bone
and the upper pastern.
The middle segment of the skeleton of the
horse's fore-leg, that is to say the one immediately
above the carpus, or so-called knee, is formed
mainly by the radius, or inner leg-bone ; the ulna
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 17
or outer leg-bone — which is as long as, and
separate from the radius in less specialised animals,
such as rhinoceroses — being represented only by its
upper end, corresponding to the human elbow, or
olecranon, and this being immovably soldered to the
radius. In consequence of this welding of two
originally separate bones into a single compound
element, the fore-leg of a horse is capable of no
other movement than a backwards and forwards
one ; this being all that is needed by a running
animal. A similar consolidation and simplification
of elements likewise obtains in the middle segment
of the hind-leg of the horse, in which the originally
distinct smaller bone known as the fibula is re-
duced to its upper extremity, this being firmly
welded to the upper end of the larger bone, or
tibia.
The reduction in the number of toes to a single
large one in each foot, and of the metacarpal and
metatarsal bones to the aforesaid splints, coupled
with the elongation of the bones of the whole lower
segment of the limb, the simplification and con-
solidation of those of the middle segment, and the
raising of the carpus (" knee ") and tarsus (hock) far
above the level of the ground, so as to cause the
animal to walk on the tips of its single toes, are
the chief features in which the skeleton of the horse
shows (as compared with that of more generalised
animals) special adaptation for the attainment of a
B
1 8 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
high speed. Such a type of limb is the one evi-
dently best suited to this end, since if the short, many-
toed, and many-boned limb had been elongated
without special modification to the extent of that of
the horse, it is perfectly certain that it would have
been unequal to the strain of carrying the body of
such a heavy animal at a high rate of speed over
hard ground.
In their limb-specialisation the horse and its
relatives have attained practically the same evolu-
tionary platform as the ruminant ungulates, only by
a different line of development. In the horse group,
as we have just seen, the development of a long
cannon-bone in the lower segment of each limb has
been brought about by the lengthening and strength-
ening of the middle element of the primitive five-toed
foot. In the ruminants, on the other hand, the same
end has been attained by the lengthening and fusion
of two adjacent elements, so aa to form a compound,
in place of a simple, cannon-bone. At the present
day the members of the horse family are absolutely
unique in the matter of limb-structure, no other
living mammal (or, for that matter, no other living
animal) having a single-toed, or monodactyle, foot.
It is, however, not a little remarkable that during
the middle, or Miocene, portion of the Tertiary
period South America was the home of a genus
of hoofed mammals known as Thoatherium,
in which a monodactyle type of foot had likewise
PLATE III
FIG. i
FIG. 2
Skeleton of front (Fig. i) and hind (Fig. 2) limbs of " Eclipse." s, scapula ;
h, humerus ; ^l, ulna; r, radius; c, carpus or wrist ("knee") ; can,
cannon-bone ; ///, phalanges or toe-bones ; /, pelvis ; /", femur ; /,
tibia ; ca. calcaneum or upper bone of tarsus or ankle ("hock").-
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 19
been developed by the reduction of the lateral toes
of a nearly allied tridactyle relative. In this case
the specialisation was even greater than in the
horse group, as the splint-bones were reduced to
mere nodules of bone on either side of each cannon-
bone.
If Thoatherium had been a near relative of the
horse, there would be no cause for surprise in its
having attained the same remarkable and final stage
of foot-development. As a matter of fact, it
belongs, however, to a totally different and much
more primitive group of ungulates, which appears
to have been always restricted to South America,
and although presenting certain structural resem-
blances to the Perissodactyla, is in other respects so
distinct that it is ranked, under the name of Lito-
pterna, as an equivalent subordinal group of the
great order Ungulata. The most remarkable thing
connected with Thoatherium is that, despite the
specialised toes, its carpus and tarsus are of an
exceedingly primitive type.1
Several noteworthy features occur in the skull
of the horse and its existing relatives. In the first
place, it differs from the skulls of all other living
perissodactyles — namely, tapirs and rhinoceroses —
in the complete closure of the rim of the socket of
the eye by means of a bridge of bone extending
1 See W. B. Scott, "The Litopterna," Rep. Princeton Univ.
Exped. to Patagonia, vol. vii. pt. i. 1910.
20 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
from the forehead downwards to the horizontal
bar known as the temporal arch. Secondly, it is
characterised by the inordinate length of the por-
tion in front of the socket of the eye, or orbit, as
compared with the part behind the same. " In the
horse," writes Professor H. F. Osborn,1 " long-
headedness is a very ancient character ; even the
earliest known four-toed horses have quite elongate,
or at least mesaticephalic [moderately long] skulls.
Skull of a giant extinct Pig-like animal (Elothtriuni], to show
the horse- like elongation of the facial portion.
The progressive elongation of the skull in horses
is apparently for two purposes : first, to facilitate
reaching the ground with the row of incisor or
cropping teeth ; second, and no less important, to
allow space in front of the eye-sockets for the great
•rows of elongate, or hypsodont, grinding teeth, the
marvellous dental battery of the horse. HVe might
assume from these facts that long-headedness is
correlated with long teeth, but the giant pigs
1 The Age of Mammals, New York,, 1910, p. 18.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 21
(elotheres) have still longer and narrower skulls
than the horse, yet all the teeth are brachyodont, or
short-crowned. Again, the elephant has extremely
elongate, or hypsodont, molar teeth, yet it also
possesses the shortest skull known among the
Mammalia."
Another feature in the skull of the existing
members of the horse family is the comparative
shortness of the slit separating the front end of the
nasal bones, which form the roof of the nose-
chamber, from those of the upper jaw, as is well
shown in the figure of the skull of a shire horse
(pi. iv. fig. i). The importance of this feature
will be apparent when the extinct relatives of
the horse are taken into consideration in a later
chapter.
Much has been made of the degree to which the
facial portion of the skull of the horse is inclined to
the basal axis of its hind part.1 Although there is
undoubtedly great variation in this respect between
different horse-skulls, it is far from certain that they
are really of any special importance. For it has
been suggested that this bending down of the fore-
part of the skull on the basal axis, which occurs in
many grass-eating mammals, is primarily due to
the " pull " or strain caused by the act of grazing ;
and if this be really the case, it is obvious that
1 See ], C, Ewart, Trans. R. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xlv. pp. 555,
587, 1907,
22 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
horses whose ancestors have for many generations
been accustomed to feed on hard and tough grasses
will show a greater degree of cranial deflection than
those whose food has consisted either of softer and
more easily yielding herbage or of grain. More-
over, it seems highly probable that the degree of
deflection may vary with age — the older the
animal, the greater the degree of bending. This,
indeed, is exemplified in the case of two skulls
figured by Professor Ewart on plate ii. of the
memoir cited in the footnote to illustrate this
feature ; the one shown in the upper figure of that
plate, in which the deflection is slight, being
obviously that of a young animal, while the one in
the lower figure, which displays the bending in a
very marked degree, is as clearly that of an aged
horse.
Yet another cranial feature remains to be
noticed. In the skulls of certain domesticated
horses, especially Arabs, thoroughbreds, and shires,
a more or less distinct oval or circular depression
may be noticed a short distance in front of the
socket of the eye, or orbit, and therefore con-
veniently called the preorbital depression. It is
shown faintly in the figure of the skull of a shire
horse in plate iv. fig. i, and more clearly in the photo-
graph of the skull of a quagga (plate iv. fig. 2) ; the
latter instance shows that the feature is not confined
to the horse itself. Of itself, this feature may seem
PLATE IV
FIG. i
FIG. 2
FIG. i. Skull of a Shire Stallion ; pf, preorbital depression.
FIG. 2. Skull of a Quagga, to show preorbital depression.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 23
a very trivial one, but it happens, as will be noticed
more fully in the sequel, that the skulls of certain
extinct horses show a much more marked de-
pression in the same region — a hollow so deep
that it deserves the name of pit rather than
depression.
Writing of this preorbital hollow in the extinct
three- toed Hipparion, Sir W. H. Flower in his
volume on The Horse,1 observed that " although
such a pit is not found in any of the existing
species of horse, it was not infrequent in many
extinct forms, and varied in them in size and depth.
It so closely resembles a similar depression found
in the same situation in many species of deer and
antelopes, which lodges a glandular infolding or
pouch of the skin called the 'suborbital gland,'
'crumen,' or in French 'larmier,' that there can be
little doubt but that it had the same purpose in the
hipparion. This gland in the existing animals that
possess it secretes a peculiar oily odorous substance,
the scent of which enables the animals provided
with it to recognise each other even at immense
distances, the faculty of smell being also developed
to a wonderful degree. . . .
"The presence of this gland in the hipparion
and its absence in the more modern Equidce has
been given as a reason for supposing that the
latter are not the direct descendants of the former,
1 London, 1891, p. 64.
24 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
but must have been derived from some other form
in which such a specialisation had been developed.
This, of course, is probable ; but it must not be
forgotten that very slight changes in habits, or the
increased uses of other senses than that of smell,
may have diminished the value of the information
afforded by this gland, and ultimately led to the
elimination of the organ itself. It may be that a
change from a life habitually passed in forests or
scrub to one in open plains would be sufficient to
account for such a modification in structure."
Sir William Flower appears never to have
noticed the presence of the slight preorbital de-
pression in the skull of certain existing represen-
tatives of the horse family ; but when it first came
under my own observation the suggestion naturally
arose that it was the last vestige of the decadent
fore-gland of the three-toed hipparion.
Confirmation of this was afforded by a statement
made by Professor T. H. Huxley,1 that traces of
a preorbital pit remain in the skulls of some of the
fossil horses from the Siwalik Hills of Northern
India. But this was not all, for some years ago
I received a communication from a correspondent
to the effect that he had seen a living horse,
believed to be of Argentine origin, in which there
was a distinct depression, although without any
external orifice, just in front of each orbit. More
1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., London, vol. xxvi. p. 2, 1870.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 25
important still was a letter from Mr. Wilfred Scawen
Blunt, the well-known possessor of a stud of Arabs,
in which it was stated that he once owned a horse
of this breed in which there was a well-developed
and functional gland on one side of the face in the
same position as the larmier of a deer. The
identification of the preorbital depression in the
skulls of certain existing members of the horse
family has been accepted by Sir E. Ray Lankester,1
who remarked that although dissection had not
revealed any existence of glandular tissue in the
structures overlying this structure in horses of
Arab descent (in which the feature is very constant),
yet it is not improbable that occasional instances
of such survival will some day come to light.
On the other hand, Mr. R. I. Pocock,2 after
dissecting a number of horses' heads, came to a
precisely opposite conclusion ; remarking that he
had failed to discover any trace of glandular tissue
in the soft parts overlying the depression, and that
the depression itself is very variable in its degree
of development. He then adds that "from this
hollow or from the corresponding area of the skull
[when it is absent] arises a long muscle which
passes forwards to supply the upper lip and nose ;
and I believe its sole significance is to give an
increase of surface for muscular fibres. If this
1 Science from an Easy-Chair, London, 1910, p. 87.
2 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.^ London, ser. 7, vol. xv., p. 517, 1905.
26 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
be so, variation in the extent to which the depres-
sion is developed is exactly what would be ex-
pected/' Mr. Pocock then goes on to observe
that the deeper pit observable in the skull of the
extinct three-toed hipparion may possibly, although
not probably, be also an area for muscular attach-
ment. He adds that in the skull of the extinct
South American Onohippidium, where the preorbital
pit (as is shown in the concluding chapter of this
volume) is very large, there appears to be a division
into two parts, of which one is shallower than
the other, and may correspond to the depression
found in some existing members of the horse
family.
Apparently, therefore, Mr. Pocock is of opinion
that in the two extinct genera just mentioned
lachrymal glands were probably developed.
A later writer, Professor Studer,1 when describ-
ing a species of hipparion from the upper Tertiary
strata of Samos, goes much further than this, and ex-
presses the opinion that in no case is the preorbital
pit for the reception of a lachrymal gland, but
that it is always solely for the purpose of muscular
attachment, and attains its maximum development
in species like Onohippidium and the Samos species
of Hipparion which were probably furnished with
a proboscis. The position of the pit, it is stated,
differs somewhat from that of a true larmier, and
1 Verh. Deutsch. ZooL Ges. 1910-11, p. n.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 27
the inframaxillary foramen is always some distance
from the pit.
•"> Leaving the skull, attention may be directed
to the teeth of the horse, which form an exceedingly
important feature in its anatomy. As is well shown
in the figure of the skull of a shire, stallion in
plate iv. fig. i, there is a considerable gap between
the front teeth, which are mainly adapted for nipping
and biting, and the long series on each side of
the face, which are conveniently called cheek-teeth,
and whose function is to grind up the grass or
other herbage gatHered by the front teeth. In the
anterior half of the aforesaid gap there occurs,
however, jn stallions a tusk on each side of both
upper and^lower jaws, which corresponds to the
canine of carnivorous mammals, and is separated,
in each jaw, from the three pairs of incisor teeth,
which occupy the front of the jaws. In mares the
tusks are either very small or wanting, from which
it may be inferred that in stallions these teeth are
mainly, if not entirely, used in fighting, and not
for gathering or masticating food, for which, indeed,
they are obviously unsuited.
^1 The existence of this long gap between the front
and the cheek teeth is a specialised feature ; mam-
mals of a more primitive type having either the
whole of the teeth in contact, or with relatively
small intervals on each side of the canines when these
are large. A similar long gap occurs in the lower
28 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
dental series of the ox and its relatives, in which,
however, the lower canines have become approxi-
mated to the incisors, with which they form a regular
series of spatulate-crowned teeth. In the upper
jaw of the ox tribe specialisation has been carried to
a much greater extent than in the horse, the canines
and incisors having completely disappeared, and
being replaced by a hard pad which takes the bite
of the lower front teeth. In consequence of the
retention of upper as well as lower front teeth,
a horse is apparently able to graze closer than
an ox.
From the existence of the aforesaid long gap
between the front and the cheek teeth in both the
horse and the ox and their respective relatives, it
would seem that such an arrangement is the one best
suited for grazing or browsing animals ; and it is not
improbably for the purpose of affording room for
the play of the large tongue, which takes an impor-
tant share in the action of grazing.
The incisors of the horse, of which those of
the lower jaw have somewhat less distinctly spatu-
late crowns than their representatives in the ox,
present a relatively complex type, met with among
no other living mammals outside the Equidce.
In place of having simple conical crowns when they
first emerge in an unworn condition from the gum,
the incisor teeth of the horse have a kind of
pit, or pocket, at the summit, which penetrates far
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 29
down into the heart of the crown. The nature
of this peculiar structure may be best understood
by taking the finger of a kid glove, and, after
filling it with soft wax, pushing in the summit
by means of a fine pencil to a depth of an inch or
so. This will give an exact representation of a
horse's incisor, more especially if we smear the
lower part of the outer surface of the finger with
sealing-wax, as we shall then have representatives
of the three constituents of the tooth. Thus the
sealing-wax will represent the outer coat, or cement,
the glove the middle element, or enamel, and the
soft wax the inner constituent, technically known as
the ivory or cement.
In this condition the wax-filled glove-finger
with the pit, or "mark," at the tip, will represent
the unworn incisor of the horse ; but if we snip off
with a pair of scissors half an inch from the summit,
we shall have a model of the tooth after it has been
in use for some time, and has had its tip ground
away by wearing against its fellow in the opposite
jaw. On looking at the section of the summit of
the cut glove-finger, it will be seen that the original
pit now forms an island in the middle of the soft
wax ( = dentine) bounded by a ring of kid ( = enamel).
By carrying the experiment one stage further, and
cutting off another three-quarters of an inch from
the summit, we shall have the model of an incisor
of an old horse. In this state the pit, or "mark,0
30 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
will have completely disappeared; and the section
will represent ( i ) a central core of soft wax, corre-
sponding to the comparatively soft dentine, (2) a
ring of kid, equivalent to the hard enamel, and (3)
an irregular coat of sealing-wax, corresponding to
the external layer of cement. A horse, like most
mammals, grows two sets of incisor teeth in both
jaws ; firstly, a baby, or milk set, and secondly, a
permanent set. The three teeth of the first set are,
however, not all shed at once, but one by one, when
they are as gradually replaced by their permanent
successors, which grow up beneath. And it is by
knowing how this replacement occurs, and noting
the extent to which the central mark is worn away,
that the age of a horse can be approximately ascer-
tained up to six or seven years old. The " mark,"
it should be added, is common to both the temporary
and the permanent set of incisors ; but is deeper in
those of the upper than in those of the lower jaw.
The jaws of a quite young colt show only the
first and second pairs of milk-incisors, both above and
below ; but after a time the third pair appears on
their outer sides. In a horse of about three years old
the first pair of permanent incisors (recognisable
by their larger size and unworn crowns) will have
pushed out and replaced the corresponding baby-
teeth. At an age of between three and a half and
four years the second or middle pair of milk-incisors
will have been similarly replaced by the permanent
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 31
pair. About half a year later the permanent tusks,
or canines, make their appearance in the case of
stallions. By the end of the fifth year the third or
outermost pair of permanent incisors will have re-
placed the corresponding temporary pair ; and the
dentition of the front of the mouth will consequently
be complete. It will be obvious that of the three
pairs of upper permanent incisors, the crowns of
the first pair will, after all are in place, be more
worn than those of the second, and the second more
than those of the third. As a rule, the mark dis-
appears in the first pair of lower permanent incisors
when the horse is six years old ; in the second pair
it is worn out a year later ; and in the third pair at
eight years. In the corresponding upper teeth it
persists about two years longer in each instance.
In the case of a six-years' -old horse the third lower
incisors retain large and conspicuous marks. Up
to five years the age of a horse can be determined
with comparative accuracy, and it can also be
approximately ascertained for some years later.
When the mark has been worn out in all the
incisors, age-determination is no longer possible by
means of the teeth. It appears, however, that in
very old horses a kind of spurious mark is formed
by the tooth becoming so worn down that the
summit of the pulp-cavity at its base is exposed in
the centre of the crown. Such a mark lacks, how-
ever, the ring of enamel characteristic of the true
32 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
mark. Moreover, when this false mark makes its
appearance, the section of the crown of the incisor
has become much more triangular than in the early
stages of wear ; and in extreme old age, when
the incisors are worn down to their very roots,
these teeth become very narrow in the transverse
direction, whereas in their earlier ages this
diameter was considerably larger than the opposite
one.
From the foregoing description, it will be evi-
dent that to the definition of the horse family given
above may be added an additional characteristic,
namely the presence in an early condition of wear,
of a "mark," or pit, in the crowns of the incisor
teeth. As regards the object of these pits, their
function is probably to increase the grinding surface
of the dentition as a whole during the period when
the cheek-teeth have not attained their full develop-
ment ; the number of functional teeth of the latter
series in young colts being only three pairs in each
jaw, while at a later stage, when some at least of
the permanent incisors have come into use, the
hinder teeth of the cheek-series are not fully
developed.
Before leaving this part of the subject, it may
be mentioned as a remarkable circumstance that,
in addition to the existing members of the horse
family and some of their extinct forerunners, the
only mammal which shows a pit in its incisors is
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 33
the South American extinct Macrauchenia, a member
of the same sub-order (Litopterna) as Thoatherium,
a genus already referred to in connection with the
skeleton of the horse's foot. This shows that the
Equidcz are paralleled in two remarkable structural
features — by Thoatherium in the monodactyle feet,
and by Macrauchenia in the presence of pits in the
crowns of the incisor teeth.
Passing on to the cheek-teeth of the horse, it
A left upper molar of a Single-toed (£guus), A, and a Three-toed
Horse (Hipparion), B. /, anterior pillar, hy, posterior pillar.
has to be noted in the first place that these are
normally represented in the adult by six pairs in
both the upper and lower jaw (pi. v.) ; of which the
first three pairs, on account of being preceded by milk-
teeth, are known as premolars, while the other three
pairs, which have no such temporary predecessors, are
the molars, or true molars, as they are often called.
In some horses, however, there is a small and
practically functionless tooth on the inner side of
34 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the front end of the anterior premolar ; and, more
rarely, there may be a still smaller tooth in a
corresponding position in the lower jaw. These
small functionless teeth, which have no temporary
predecessors, and are known to horse-dealers as
" wolf-teeth," may be developed on only one side of
the jaw. They are the vanishing representatives of
teeth which were relatively large and functional in
some of the extinct ancestors of the horse, and are
of importance as showing that the three large
functional premolars of the latter correspond to the
three last of the typical mammalian series of four.
Hence it is frequently found convenient to speak
of these teeth as the second, third, and fourth pre-
molars, instead of calling them the first, second, and
third. On the other hand the three pairs of molars
are respectively denominated the first, second, and
third.
In a young colt, if the " wolf-teeth" be not de-
veloped, there are three pairs of milk-molars in each
jaw ; those of the upper jaw having their crowns
more elongated from front to back than is the case
with the premolars by which they are subsequently
replaced. As the colt grows older, the first molar
cuts the gum before the last premolar has replaced
the corresponding milk-molar ; and, as a conse-
quence of this, it will always be found in an adult
horse that the crown of the first molar is rather
more worn than that of the tooth immediately in
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 35
front of it, that is to say, the last premolar. With
this exception, each cheek-tooth in an adult horse
is always more worn than the tooth immediately
behind it.
With the exception of the first and last, which
are more or less pointed at the free end, an upper
cheek-tooth of a horse consists of a square prism
rather more than an inch in diameter, and about
three inches in height when unworn, with its lower
extremity terminating in four roots. Both the
outer and inner surfaces are marked by strong
vertical flutings ; and when in use, only a small
extent of the upper part of the crown is exposed
above the gum.
As these teeth are usually seen in a more or
less worn condition, it is preferable to take such a
partially worn tooth as the basis for a description of
their leading characteristics. Such a tooth may be
compared in structure to the incisors ; its apparent
complexity of structure being due to the pushing-in,
on the summit of the crown, of two pits compar-
able to the single pit, or "mark," in the incisor.
These two pits are the two irregularly-shaped
islands seen in the middle of the crown in A of the
illustration on page 33. The centres of these pits,
which extend right down to the base of the crown
of the tooth, are filled with cement ; and the walls
of enamel with which they are lined are thrown
into a number of more or less complex foldings.
36 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
These are most developed in the extinct three-
toed hipparion, as shown in B of the same illustra-
tion, in which the cement filling the pits is white.
Further complexity is produced by vertical flutings
on the inner side of the crown, which result in the
production of the two semi-isolated pillars marked
p and hy in the aforesaid figures. Of these two
inner pillars by far the more important from a
systematic point of view is the front or anterior
one (p in the illustrations), for it affords an import-
ant character in the definition of the genus Equus.
In all the existing members of the horse family this
pillar is connected by a narrow isthmus with the
main body of the tooth ; and the fore-and-aft
diameter of its worn surface is considerably longer
than the transverse one. A pillar of this type is
termed a broad one ; but there are certain extinct
horses in which, while the pillar remains connected
with the body of the tooth, its two diameters are
nearly equal ; in teeth of this type the anterior
pillar is said to be narrow.
In the three-toed hipparions (B of the illus-
tration on page 33) a totally different condition
obtains, the anterior pillar, which is of the narrow
type, being completely surrounded by a ring of
enamel, so that its central core of dentine is cut off
from the dentine of the main body of the tooth.
To put the matter shortly, it may be said that while
the upper molars of the horse and its immediate
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 37
relatives have the anterior pillar of a peninsular
type, in the three-toed hipparions it assumes a com-
pletely insular form.
The lower cheek-teeth of the horse have much
narrower crowns than the upper ones ; but the
foldings on their crowns are of the same general
type, although in a reversed way, the portion
corresponding to the inner pillars being on the
outer side of the tooth. It will not be necessary
to describe these teeth in detail.
In a general way the three upper molars of
the horse correspond in structure with those of the
ox. In each, as is best seen when the teeth are
in an unworn condition, there is a pair of central
pits or islands on the crown, around which are
four sub-crescentic columns ; but whereas the pits
are almost completely filled with cement in the
horse, in the ox they remain more or less open.
Such a tooth may be described as consisting of two
lateral lobes, each with a single central pit.
In the horse, as shown in the figures in
plate v., the upper premolars are of the same
structure as the molars ; the last premolar being
in some cases even larger than the first molar.
In the ox, on the other hand, the upper premolars
are smaller in size and simpler in structure than
the molars ; each of the former consisting of only
a single lobe, with one central pit, although this
lobe is somewhat larger than one of those of the
38 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
double-lobed ox-molars. In consequence of this
greater complexity of its premolars (which is
common to both upper and lower jaw), the dental
mill of the horse, as Professor Osborn calls it,
forms a more powerful and more efficient grinding
instrument than that of the ox.
And the reason for this greater masticating
power in the dentition of the horse is, I think,
not very difficult to discover. As is stated in
my volume on that animal, the ox, in common
with other ruminants, gathers its food quickly,
swallows it, and subsequently, owing to the complex
structure of its stomach, regurgitates and remasti-
cates it at leisure when in repose in a position of
more or less security. The horse, on the other
hand, who has a stomach of ordinary structure, has
to completely masticate his food and swallow it
once for all as soon as it is gathered, and this, too,
in places where he may be exposed to attack from
enemies. Consequently, it is of vital importance
that the process of mastication should be accom-
plished not only in the most efficient manner, but
likewise with the greatest possible rapidity. Hence
the complexity and powerful grinding action of
his cheek-teeth.
There is, however, another point in connection
with these same cheek-teeth to which attention
may now be directed. As already mentioned, these
teeth are characterised by the great vertical height
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 39
of their crowns ; in which respect, as will be shown
in the sequel, they differ from the corresponding
teeth of the horse's early ancestors, which had
quite short crowns. Now, if surrounding con-
ditions be the same, tall-crowned teeth indicate
the potentiality of much longer life on the part of
their owner than is afforded by low-crowned ones ;
as it is obvious that a tall tooth will take much
longer to wear down than will a low one. In this
particular instance it has, however, to be borne
in mind that the early ancestors of the horse were
swamp-dwelling animals living on soft, luscious
vegetation which could be masticated without having
much effect on their teeth. The horse and its
relatives, on the other hand, when in a state of
nature, live on open plains where the grass is often
more or less hard and wiry, and thus calculated
to wear away the teeth at a relatively rapid rate.
In the case of domesticated horses the rate of wear
is probably still further accelerated by the nature
of the food. */
Still, after making due allowance for all this,
there can be little doubt that the existing members
of the horse tribe are longer-lived animals than
were their early forerunners. And, as animals
go, the domesticated horse may be considered to
have a considerable pre-eminence in the matter
of longevity, although in this respect it does not
equal its distant cousins the rhinoceroses, some of
4o THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
which have been known to live for considerably
more than half a century.
One of the oldest — if not actually the oldest —
horses on record was an Australian, referred to in
the Field newspaper of March 18, 1905. This
horse is stated to have been foaled on November 16,
1860, and was still living at the date of the afore-
said notice, when he would have been rising 45. I
never saw a notice of his death. The celebrated
Godolphin Arabian, or Barb, who died in 1753,
was brought from Paris 25 years previously, where
he is reputed to have been drawing a water-cart : from
this it may be inferred that he was well over 30 at
the time of his death. His grandson "Matchem"
is believed to have reached 33 years, while
" Diomed," the winner of the first Derby, is reputed
to have attained the age of 30 or 31. " Pocahontas,"
again, died in 1870 at the age of 33 ; while " Touch-
stone," who was foaled in 1831, died in 1861.
Records of race-horses living to ages of between
23 and 27 years are comparatively common.
Finally, it may be mentioned that the Duke of
Bedford possesses the skull of a horse which, owing
to infirmity, was shot when close upon 38 years of
age. " Prince," as this animal was called, was one of
the old small and sturdy Galloway cart-horse breed,
now nearly extinct. He was foaled in Wigtownshire,
and taken over at a valuation with an estate pur-
chased by the Duke.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 41
Although it does not come within the scope of
the present volume to give a complete account of
the structure of the horse, such as is to be found in
the numerous works on veterinary anatomy, there
are certain structural features, in addition to those
already mentioned, which demand special notice on
the ground of their morphological interest. The
first of these is a wartlike structure buried in the
tuft of long hair on the hind surface of each foot,
which gives the name of fetlock (i.e. footlock or feet-
lock) to this segment of the limb (pi. vi. fig. i).
When the tuft of hair is cut away, there will be
revealed on the summit of a fatty cushion a bare
patch covered with a warty growth to which French
veterinarians have given the name of ergot, a word
properly signifying the spur of a cock. The ergot
is relatively larger in the ass than in the horse.
Sir William Flower1 appears to have been the
first to point out the true significance of the ergot,
which really represents the large fatty pad or cushion
on the sole of the foot of a dog situated above, and
to a slight extent between, the four smaller toe-
pads. Although now a rudimentary, or vestigial,
structure, it was evidently functional in the early
ancestors of the horse, which applied a considerable
portion of the side of the foot to the ground, instead
of resting only on the tip of the middle toe.
Although the term hoof is generally applied
1 The Horse, Modern Science Series, London, 1891, p. 168.
42 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
to the whole of the terminal segment of the limb,
it properly denotes — at all events, in an anatomical
sense — only the dense horny shell or wall investing
the front and lateral surfaces, and corresponding
to the nail of the human middle finger or toe and
the claw of the same toe in a dog. To the trian-
gular, less hard, horny structure projecting from the
back into the centre of the lower surface of the
foot the name "frog" is applied.
In all members of the horse tribe the terminal
segments of the fore and hind feet are remarkably
alike ; more alike, in fact, than in any other animals.
In the horse itself this similarity is, however, some-
what less marked than in most of the other members
of the group, the front hoofs being broader and
rounder than the hind pair. In the kiang l of
Tibet this difference is less marked, and in asses
and zebras all the hoofs are relatively small and
narrow, so that it is practically impossible to dis-
tinguish the front from the hind ones when sepa-
rated from the rest of the limb.
In addition to the difference in the shape of
the hoofs of the horse and kiang as compared with
those of other members of the family, there are also
specific differences in regard to the form of the
frog. In the horse, for instance, the frog forms
a long narrow ridge, deeply grooved posteriorly,
1 The characteristics of this and other species mentioned in this
chapter are given in the sequel.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 43
which does not extend behind the extremities of
the outer case of the hoof, and is not applied to the
ground in walking. In the North African GreVy's
zebra, on the other hand, the frog is broader, with
scarcely any trace of the posterior groove, and its
hind-part touches the ground when the animal is
standing. In the kiang, and probably also in the
Asiatic onagers, the posterior development of the hoof
becomes much more marked, so that a considerable
portion projects behind the case of the hoof and
touches the ground, the cleft being deep and narrow.
Still greater development of the hind part of the
frog occurs in the ass, in which, as in some zebras,
it also becomes much thickened and somewhat
spongy in structure. In the extinct South Ameri-
can Onohippidium, the frog is somewhat inter-
mediate between that of the horse and that of the
ass, being grooved, and not projecting behind the
case of the hoof, but being of considerable breadth
and thickness. Finally, in the bontequagga, and
probably the quagga, the medium-sized and slightly-
cleft frog is deeply sunk in the hoof, behind which
it projects to a small degree, not touching the
ground, except when the hoof is much worn down.
These differences are probably correlated with
differences in the nature of the habitat of the various
species, and it is probable that species like the
horse, in which the frog is narrow, are adapted for
grassy or sandy plains ; while those in which it is
44 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
broad, deep, and spongy, like the ass and the
kiang, are better adapted for rocky ground. This
is confirmed by the fact that the kiang does inhabit
extremely stony and rocky country.
By far the most remarkable and interesting
structures in the limbs of the horse are those com-
monly known as " chestnuts," although sometimes
called " castors," but in old French veterinary works
termed "sallenders" (from salendre] or " mal-
lenders," from an idea that they were due to dis-
ease. In the .fore-limb of the horse the chestnut
(pi. vi. fig. 2) or callosity, takes the form of an
elongated patch of bare warty skin situated some
little distance above the knee, or carpus ; while
in the hind-limb there is a smaller patch — which
may be absent in some cases — a short distance below
the hock or tarsus, and likewise on the inner surface.
In all the other members of the family the chest-
nuts are wanting in the hind-limbs ; and in the
ass and the zebras the front chestnut is larger,
smoother, and softer than in the horse.
The question as to what structures in other
mammals are represented by these chestnuts has
been much discussed. Practically all naturalists
are in accord in- regarding them as vestigial struc-
tures ; Sir W. H. Flower,1 for instance, considering
them to be decadent skin-glands. A qualified
support to this theory is accorded by Mr. F. E.
1 The Horse, p. 165.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 45
Beddard,1 who in one passage states that the chest-
nuts on the fore-limbs probably correspond to glands
found in the neighbourhood of the wrist or carpus
in certain other mammals, although on a subsequent
page the glandular nature of these structures is
questioned. In another and apparently later com-
munication the same writer 2 suggested that the
front chestnuts may represent a carpal sense-
organ, of which remnants are believed to exist in
the bristles on the wrists of the African hyraxes,
the sole survivors of a formerly numerous group of
ungulates. This degeneration of such a sense-
organ might, it is suggested, result in the formation
of a structure like a chestnut.
On the other hand, there exists an idea that the
chestnuts represent vanished toes or foot-pads.
This theory has been supported by Professor J. C.
Ewart3 of Edinburgh, and more recently by a
German writer, Mr. R. Hintze,4 who compares the
hind chestnuts to the pads on the foot of a
kangaroo.
If, however, the identification of the horse's
ergot with the hind foot-pad of the tapir and the
dog be admitted — and the evidence in its favour
is very strong — it is practically certain that the
chestnuts cannot represent foot-pads, much less
1 Cambridge Natural History — Mammalia^ pp. 12, 13, and 240.
2 Proc.ZooL Soc. London^ 1902, vol. i. p. 135.
3 See Nature -, London, vol. Ivii. p. 239, 1903.
4 ZooL Anzeiger^ Leipzig, vol. xxv. pp. 372-382, 1910.
46 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
vanished toes. Pursuing this aspect of the subject
still further, it should be borne in mind that, as I
have pointed out in an article in the Proceedings
of the Zoological Society of London for 1903, the
chestnuts of the horse are situated on the inner
surface, whereas, if they represented vestigial foot-
pads, their position should be, primd facie, on the
hind aspect, as is the case with the ergot. It might,
indeed, be argued that they have changed their
original position, but of such a shifting there is
no evidence in the adult horse. A second, and
perhaps more important, objection to the foot-
pad theory may be drawn from the fact that the
chestnuts in the fore-limb are situated above the
so-called knee-joint (carpus), and are therefore
altogether higher up than any of the foot-pads of
plantigrade mammals. Unless, therefore, another
shift of position has taken place, the fore-chest-
nuts do not represent foot-pads. This argument
was used by Sir W. H. Flower to disprove the
theory that the chestnuts are remnants of lateral
toes.
The hind-chestnuts, on the contrary, are situated
a short distance below the joint of the hock (tarsus),
and are therefore on a part of the limb, although on
its inner side, which is included in the foot of a
plantigrade mammal. If, however, the front-chest-
nut be regarded as corresponding in a general way
with the hind one, it will be evident that in the
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 47
event of the former not being a foot-pad, the same
will hold good for the latter.
A third, and perhaps stronger objection may
be urged against the foot-pad theory. On the
assumption that the chestnuts of the existing
members of the Equidce are vestiges of foot-pads,
it is clear that these structures must have existed
in the ancestors of that family since the time when
such ancestors walked on the entire sole of the
foot, in the plantigrade fashion ; but, so far as I
know, no ungulate was ever wholly plantigrade in
both feet ; the nearest approach to this condition
obtaining in the Lower Eocene Coryphodon, in
which the hind-limb was wholly plantigrade, while
the front one was partially digitigrade. It has thus
to be assumed, on the foot-pad hypothesis, that the
front-chestnuts of the horse have been functionless
structures from a period antedating the evolution of
the Ungulata. Such a persistence, on exposed parts
of the body, of a functionless structure seems im-
probable, especially when the modifications are
borne in mind which, on this hypothesis, the horse-
line must have undergone since the time when the
chestnuts were functional structures. Perhaps the
case of the ergot may be cited against this argu-
ment ; but it should be remembered that this
structure probably acted as a functional pad at a
later stage of evolution than could have been the
case with the chestnuts.
48 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Having now stated some of the objections
against identifying the horse's chestnuts with the
foot-pads of polydactyle mammals, it remains to
consider whether they can be identified with any
other structures. Now a certain numtfer of repre-
sentatives of the deer family — notably the reindeer,
the white-tailed deer, the mule-deer, and, in a
rudimentary condition, the elk — are furnished on
the inner side of the hock with a glandular tuft
corresponding very closely in situation with the
hind -chestnut of the horse. In fact, the only
difference in the position of the two structures is
that the tarsal tuft of the deer is placed rather
lower on the hock. From the fact of its occurrence
in deer so widely separated from one another as
are the species mentioned, it seems evident that
the tarsal gland (which is doubtless a scent-organ)
is a very ancient structure, which was present in
all the ancestors of the group, but has been lost,
probably from disuse, in the great majority of Old
World deer.
Judging from their position, there would seem
to be a certain probability that the hind-chestnuts
of the horse and the tarsal glands of the deer are
corresponding structures.
With regard to the correspondence of the fore-
chestnut of the horse, it may be mentioned that
many gazelles have tufts of hair (" knee-brushes")
at the knee (carpus), which are certainly glandular
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 49
in nature. And it is possible that these may
represent the fore-chestnuts of the horse, for there
seems no good reason why the position of a gland
should not have somewhat shifted in two widely
separated groups of mammals. Then, again, we
have the carpal bristles of certain mammals, such
as the South American coatis and the hyraxes,
already referred to as the remnants of a " scent-
organ " — a structure probably not far removed in
its nature from a gland. The occurrence of these
bristles in the hyraxes is very important. Mr.
Beddard states that these are the only ungulates in
which he has found these bristles. Carpal callosities
are, however, described by Dr. W. Leche1 as
occurring in wart-hogs (Phacochcerus) ; although
they are stated by their describer to be acquired,
and not primitive structures. Of special importance
is the occurrence of bristles in these structures,
since, even if hairs be found to exist on the
callosities of foetal Equidce, this would be no bar to
the supposition of their glandular nature.
More recently, in the Bulletin de la Societt
Scientifique et Medicale de I' Quest for July 1909,
Veterinary Surgeon J. Roger directed attention to
the presence on the inner and hind surface of the
fore-legs of pigs, in proximity to the wrist or carpal
joint, of a patch of large pores, which in certain
circumstances exude a transparent and slightly
1 Biol. Centralblatt, vol. xxii. p. 79, 1902.
50 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
glutinous fluid. After describing these sudoriparous
glands in some detail, the writer suggested that
they correspond to the chestnuts of the horse, or
rather that the chestnuts represent the sudoriparous
glands of the pigs in a decadent condition. The
fact that those of the horse yield when cut a sticky,
strong-smelling fluid favours this interpretation,
which also accords fairly well with the theory that
the chestnuts represent structures more or less
similar to the foot-glands of deer.
As regards the structure of the chestnuts them-
selves, it may be noted that in the horse both pairs
are of a distinctly warty nature, and that the hind
pair is certainly in a more decadent condition than
the other, being in fact on the verge of disappearing.
In the zebras, on the other hand (in which the hind
one has been lost), the fore-chestnut is larger and
much less warty and also situated higher up. In
dried skins it is, in fact, much more like the pale
glandular patch of skin below the ear of a reedbuck.
In this connection not only should Mr. Beddard's
observations be borne in mind, but attention may
be directed to others by Mr. Bland Sutton,1 in which
it is pointed out that in certain lemurs decadent
glands are actually converted into bunches of spines,
which are practically almost the same as warts ;
that is to say, they are excessive growths of some-
what abnormal dermal tissue. Hence there seems
1 Proc. Zool. Soc., 1887, p. 369.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 51
no primd facie reason why the chestnuts of the
Equidte should not be decadent glandular structures,
the decadence being more marked in those of the
horse than in the single pair of the asses and
zebras.
There is, however, another point which may
have an important bearing on the subject. As
already mentioned, the presence of a depression in
the skulls of certain extinct three-toed horses renders
it probable that primitive horses were furnished
with face-glands comparable to those of deer ; such
glands probably having a function somewhat ana-
logous to that of the scent-glands on the limbs
of the latter. If, then, the existing Equidce have
got rid of their face-glands, as being (perhaps on
account of change of habit) useless, it is conceivable
that, for the same reason, they may have also
discarded their limb-glands.
And there is some reason to believe that such
a change of habit has taken place during the
evolution of the family. Mr. R. I. Pocock,1 for
instance, in a paper on the primitive colouring of
the members of the horse tribe, to which fuller
reference is made later, has suggested that the
ancestral animals were inhabitants of forests, in-
stead of open plains, remarking that this primitive
type of colouring " would lend itself especially to
concealment in horses accustomed to shelter in
1 Ann. Mag, Nat. Hist., London, ser. 8, vol. iv. p. 409, 1909.
52 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
woods through the foliage of which the sun-rays
passed, dappling the leaves and tree-trunks with
spots of light."
Now if such a change of habit has taken place,
nothing would seem more likely than that it should
have been accompanied by the loss of scent-glands,
which would not be required among animals living
in studs1 on open plains in order to ascertain the
whereabouts of their fellows.
There is, however, yet one more point in favour
of the view that the chestnuts represent decadent
scent-glands. As already mentioned, these struc-
tures exude, when cut, a strong-smelling fluid ; and
I am informed that this fluid will not only attract
other horses, but that it was formerly employed by
burglars and poachers to keep dogs quiet. If this
be true, the fluid must almost certainly represent
the secretion of an ancestral scent-gland.
Attention may now be directed to certain features
connected with the colouring of the hair in the
existing members of the horse family. It has long
been noticed that dun-coloured domesticated horses
frequently show a tendency to develop dark bars
on the legs, and sometimes one or two transverse
dark stripes across the shoulder and another along
the middle line. And since similar markings occur
1 Although the word "stud" is now used to denote a stable of
horses, it originally denoted (Anglo-Saxon stud, Slav, stod} a drove of
wild horses, for which it is the proper term. See Heyn and Stally-
brass, Wanderings of Plants and Animals, London, 1885, p. 39.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 53
in the wild asses of Africa, while the zebras and
quaggas of that country are marked by dark and
light stripes over the whole or a considerable
portion of the head, body, and limbs, it has been
considered probable that all the ancestral members
of the family were fully striped. Consequently
species like the Mongolian wild horse, the Asiatic
kiang, chigetai, and onager, and the North African
wild ass, which are more or less nearly self-coloured,
are presumed to have lost their stripes in accord-
ance with the special conditions of their natural
surroundings ; and also that the tendency in dun
horses, and it may be added mules, to the develop-
ment of stripes is an instance of atavistic reversion.
In addition to this tendency to develop stripes
on the limbs and shoulders in dun-coloured horses
and mules, there is a still stronger tendency among
domesticated horses of all colours except duns, but
more especially greys, to show dappled markings.
Attention was directed to this feature by Darwin,1
who stated that it occasionally occurs among asses,
and who expressed the opinion that it was probably
connected in some way with the ancestral striping.
At a much later date Dr. E. Bonavia, a brigade-
surgeon in the Indian Medical Department, in a very
remarkable book entitled Studies in the Evolution
of Animals? laid still greater stress on the frequent
1 Animals and Plants under Domestication, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 58,
London, 1885. * London, 1895.
54 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
occurrence of dappling in horses of all colours, and
suggested that it must be a very deep-seated and
ancient character of the group. He even went so
far as to suggest that the dappling of the horse
represents the rosettes on the leopard's skin, and
that the latter are derived from the pattern on the
bony plates of the armour of the extinct giant arma-
dillos, or glyptodonts, of South America.
Now although this theory is certainly untenable
it has the merit of recognising that dappling is a
feature deeply implanted in the equine nature.
Giving full credit to the discoverer of this fact,
Mr. R. I. Pocock,1 who has done much to illustrate
the meaning of animal coloration, has taken up the
subject of the colours of domesticated horses, and
concludes that their colouring may be classed under
three main types. The first of these types com-
prises bays, blacks, chestnuts, roans, piebalds, and
skewbalds ; the second includes duns alone ; while
the third is represented by greys and the majority
of whites. From the fact that in all wild members
of the horse family the mane and tail are darker in
colour than the body, it is inferred that bay is the
original phase of the first type. On this phase
three modifications have been working, namely,
blackness, or melanism, to give rise to browns and
blacks ; redness, or erythrism, to produce chest-
nuts ; and whiteness, or albinism, to develop (in
1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., London, ser. 8, vol. iv. p. 404, 1909.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 55
conjunction with melanism and erythrism) piebalds
and skewbalds, and in another direction greys,
and finally whites.
That this is not a mere fanciful suggestion is
made evident by the fact that melanism, erythrism,
and albinism are recognised features in the colour-
development of wild animals. It is added that
chestnuts, from the extension of the red to the mane
and tail, may be regarded in the light of " sports."
It has been suggested by Professor W. Ridge-
way, in his work On the Origin of the Thorough-
bred Horse? that the white forehead-star and
white " stockings " so often observed in chestnut
thoroughbreds are hereditary features derived from
the ancestor of that breed ; but this idea is rejected
by Mr. Pocock, who shows that such markings are
to be regarded as first steps in the direction of
albinism, and are consequently in no sense ancestral.
Dappling, as already mentioned, may occur in
horses of all colours, but is most common in bays
and greys and rarest of all in duns ; this prevalence
being the main justification for Dr. Bonavia's view
that it is an extremely ancient feature in the equine
organisation. Mr. Pocock believes, indeed, that dap-
pling is even older than striping, and he has also
been led to conclude that the ancestral forms of the
horse family were dark-coloured animals marked
with white or yellowish flecks or spots arranged in
1 Cambridge, 1905.
56 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
much the same manner as are those on the coats of
young tapirs. A certain amount of support to this
theory is afforded by the circumstance that it tends
to bring two families of the odd-toed section of
the hoofed mammals into line with one another in
the matter of colouring.
These hypothetical white markings of the ances-
tral members of the horse tribe are presumed to have
taken in the first instance the form of simple round
spots, which subsequently tended to arrange them-
selves in lines and then to coalesce into longitudinal
streaks, but finally underwent a rearrangement, so
as to produce light transverse bars or stripes on the
greater portion of the head and body. On this
view, zebras should be regarded as black or brown
animals with white or buff stripes, and not, after the
ordinary fashion, as white ones with dark stripes ;
this idea having been suggested some years previous
to the publication of Mr. Pocock's paper by Sir
H. H. Johnston. Similarly, there appear to be
good grounds for considering that giraffes were
originally brown or red animals with vertical white
stripes arranged like those of elands and their
cousin the bongo antelope of the forests of
Equatorial Africa.
It may be added that dappling occurs only in
domesticated horses and occasionally in asses and
mules, and that it is very rare in duns. From its
absence in the wild Mongolian horse, which may
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 57
safely be regarded as the ancestor of many of the
domesticated European breeds, it may be suggested
that dappling is an attribute of the Arab stock,
which, as will be shown later, there is considerable
reason to regard as being derived from a species
different to the one which gave rise to the original
domesticated horses of Western Europe. It is quite
true that there are difficulties in regard to this
suggestion ; one of them being that we have no
information as to when Arab or Barb blood was
first introduced among the horses of Western Europe,
while we are equally in the dark as to whether
dappling always occurred among the latter, or
whether it is a foreign feature.
It does, however, appear very strange that if
dappling be a remnant of an ancient type of colour-
ing at one period characteristic of the horse tribe
in general, it should have completely died out in
all wild species, to reappear in the domesticated
breeds of Equus caballus. And the only way out
of the difficulty seems to be the above suggestion,
that the progenitor of the Arab and Barb was a
dappled bay horse.
As regards the inheritance of coat-colour among
horses, it appears, according to Mr. R. Bunsow,1
that in the case of thoroughbreds, bays (including
browns) may be either pure as regards the power
of transmitting their colour to their offspring, or
1 The Mendel Journal, London, No. 2, p. 74, 1911.
58 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
impure, when they may give rise to chestnuts. It
thus follows that bays, as being capable of produc-
ing offspring of a colour different to their own, are
a dominant type (D), while chestnuts, which lack
this capacity, are recessive (R). Chestnut horses,
as having but one kind of sexual cells, may accord-
ingly all be symbolised as RR, whereas bays may
be classed either as DD or DR, according as to
whether they are pure or whether they contain an
admixture of chestnut cells. Now if a DD stallion
be mated with an RR mare, all the foals will be
DR bays. On the other hand, the foals of an RR
mare by a DR stallion will, in the long run, consist
of bays and chestnuts in nearly equal numbers.
When chestnuts are bred together, their offspring
should be all chestnuts (RR), but if chestnuts be
crossed with bays, the foals may be either all bays
or half chestnuts (RR) and half bays (DR), the
former case, as mentioned above, being due to the
fact that the parent bays were DD, and the latter
to their being DR. Certain apparent exceptions
to these conditions occurring in the Stud-book are
shown to be due to incorrect registration of colour,
and it is probable that the same is the case with all
the rest. As regards greys, it is stated that in all
cases one of the parents must be of this colour.
At the meeting of the British Association held
at Portsmouth in 1911 Mr. C. C. Hurst discussed
the question whether there is any connection
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 59
between the coat-colour and the speed of thorough-
breds. Although such a relationship appears to be
generally lacking, evidence is gradually accumulat-
ing to suggest that in certain strains there may be
a partial coupling of coat-colour and racing power.
For instance, the chestnut grand-children of the
famous thoroughbred "St. Simon" have so far proved
themselves to be much inferior in racing power to
their bay and brown brothers and sisters. While
these chestnuts have between them won only two
first-class races, their bay and brown brothers and
sisters have between them won fifteen classic races,
and are only about twice as numerous. Another
interesting point under investigation was the ap-
parent partial conjunction of brown coats, high
racing power, and female sex in St. Simon's own
offspring. St. Simon's brown fillies proved them-
selves to be strikingly superior in racing power to
the bay fillies, the brown colts, and even the bay
colts, a few individuals of which were extraordinarily
good. This was the more remarkable when it is
considered that in racing colts have many advantages
over fillies. It seems possible that the elucidation
of such an apparently trivial thing as coat-colour
may help to throw light on the more complicated
question of the breeding of a first-class winner.
Certain abnormalities in the structure of the
skeleton of the horse occur from time to time, of
which it will suffice to refer to three. The first of
60 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
these occurs in the bones of the foot, and takes the
form of the more or less complete development of
one or both of the lateral toes normally represented
by the splint-bones. In certain instances, as has
been pointed out by Sir William Flower, when only
one of these lateral toes is developed, the abnor-
mality does not apparently indicate reversion to an
ancestral type, but seems due to a splitting of the
bones of the main toe. In other cases, however,
there seems little doubt that such supplemental toes
are really a reversion to the condition obtaining in
the extinct three-toed members of the family. An
instance of this kind of reversion is exhibited in the
foot of a shire colt formerly in the possession of
Lord Wantage, by whom the specimen was pre-
sented to the British Museum. The metacarpal
bones of the fore-foot are complete, although vary-
ing in size, and the terminal toe-bones carried
complete hoofs.
Apparently this reversion to the three-toed type
occurs only among domesticated horses.
A second abnormality among domesticated
horses is displayed by the development of rudi-
mentary horns, or rather horn-cores, on the fore-
head (pi. vii. fig. i). In his Animals and Plants
under Domestication? Darwin wrote that "In
various countries horn-like projections have been
observed on the frontal bones of the horse : in
1 Vol. i. p. 52.
PLATE VII
FIG. i
FIG. 2
FIG. i. Frontlet of Horse, showing horn-like processes.
FIG. 2. Outline of the Prehistoric Tarpan or Wild Horse,
incised on a piece of horn, from the Madelaine Rock-
shelter in the Department of Dordogne, France.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 61
one case described by Mr. Percival1 they arose
about two inches above the orbital processes, and
were very like those in a calf from five to six
months old, being from half to three-quarters of an
inch in length. Azara2 has described two cases
in South America in which the projections were
between three and four inches in length : other
instances have occurred in Spain."
The same abnormality is displayed in four
specimens exhibited in the British Museum (Natural
History). The first of these is the skull of an
English horse presented by Mr. Hanbury Carlile ;
while of the three other specimens of the same
type, one is the frontal region of the skull of an
English horse showing the pair of rudimentary
horns in precisely the same position as in the first
specimen, but of somewhat larger size. The other
two are models of the foreheads of thoroughbreds,
each showing a pair of similar horns, situated as
in the preceding specimens. These are important
as showing that the skin extends uniformly over
the horn-like processes, without any trace of a
dermal horn ; the same condition being observable
in the other two examples. Baron Francis Nopcsa
informs me that he knows of a horse in Transylvania
with rudimentary horns. The significance of these
horn-like growths is at present inexplicable, seeing
1 The Veterinary, vol. i. p. 224.
* Quadrupedes du Paraguay, vol. ii. p. 313, 1801.
62 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
that none of the ancestral horses, or even of the
collateral branches of the horse-stock, were horned
animals. Probably it is a kind of redundant deve-
lopment, such as occurs in the later types of many
groups of animals ; seeing that the members of
the horse family have efficient fighting weapons
in their hoofs, and that they are also largely pro-
tected from foes by their speed. It would be
of great interest if it were possible to ascertain
whether all these "horned horses" were of Arab
or Barb descent.
One other abnormality, and this an individual
one, may also be referred to. In the limb-bones
of the celebrated thoroughbred " Stockwell " (1849-
1876), which are exhibited in the British Museum
(Natural History) the projection on the hind border
of the femur, or thigh-bone, known as the third
trochanter (vide supra, p. 8) is almost obsolete ;
and it would be interesting to ascertain if the same
feature characterises the skeleton of his descendants,
if any of these have been preserved. It seems
natural to suppose that the practical absence of
the trochanter would have had some effect on
the action of Stockwell ; and it is very note-
worthy that in describing the sale of the Burghley
Stud, a writer signing himself " The Druid " states
in Post and Paddock, 1857, p. 296, that "Stockwell
came ambling out in his peculiar style, with his
Roman head and massive muscular points much
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 63
fined down since he all but broke Teddington's
heart." This seems to suggest that the horse had
a distinctive action of his own.
In this place a few lines may be devoted to
the action and position of the limbs of a horse
at the gallop, and the conventional modes of repre-
senting the same. In this action the movements
of the limbs are so rapid that, like the spokes
of a quickly revolving wheel, the relative positions
of the limbs at any particular moment cannot be
appreciated by the human eye. Instantaneous pho-
tography shows, however, that all the conventional
modes of representing the galloping horse are
untrue to nature.
Sir E. Ray Lankester in one of his articles
published in the Daily Telegraph under the title
of " Science from an Easy-Chair," has, for instance,
pointed out "that what has been drawn by artists
and called 'the flying gallop/ in which the legs
are fully extended and all the feet are off the
ground, with the hind-hoofs turned upwards, never
occurs at all in the galloping horse, nor anything
in the least like it. There is a fraction of a second
when all four legs of the galloping horse are off
the ground, but they are not then extended, but,
on the contrary, are drawn, the hind ones forward,
and the front ones backward, under the horse's
belly. A model showing this actual instantaneous
attitude of the galloping horse has been placed
64 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
in the Natural History Museum. When the hoofs
touch the ground again after this instantaneous
lifting and bending of the legs under the horse,
the first to touch it is one of the hind-legs,
which is pushed very far forward, forming an acute
angle with the body. The shock of the horse's
impact on the ground is thus received by the hind-
leg which reaches obliquely forward beneath the
body like an elastic spring. Since the instantaneous
photographs have become generally known, artists
have ceased to represent the galloping horse in
the curious stretched pose which used to be familiar
to every one in Herring's racing plates, with both
fore- and hind-legs nearly horizontal, and the flat
surface of the hind-hoofs actually turned upwards ! "
Later on in the same article it is mentioned how
M. Solomon Reinach has shown "that in Assyrian,
Egyptian, Greek, Roman, mediaeval, and modern
art up to the end of the eighteenth century * the
flying gallop ' does not appear at all. The first
example (so far as those schools are concerned)
is an engraving by G. T. Stubbs in 1794 of a horse
called Baronet. The essential points about ' the
flying gallop' are that the fore-limbs are fully
stretched forward, the hind-limbs fully stretched back-
ward, and that the flat surfaces of the hinder hoofs
are facing upward. After this engraving of 1794
the attitude became generally adopted in English
art to represent a galloping horse. . . . Reinach
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 65
has shown that in the pre- Homeric art of Greece —
that which is called ' Mycenaean ' (of which so
much was made known by the discoveries of that
wonderful man Schliemann when he dug up the
citadel of Agamemnon) — the figures of animals,
horses, deer, bulls (see the beautiful gold cups
of Vaphio ! ), dogs, lions, and griffins, in the exact
conventional pose of 'the flying gallop/ are quite
abundant ! There was an absolute break in the
tradition of art between the early gold-workers
of Mykene (1800 to 1000 B.C.) and the Greeks of
Homer's time (800 B.C.). Europe never received it,
nor did the Assyrians nor the Egyptians. Thirty
centuries and more separate the reappearance in
Europe of ' the flying gallop ' — through Stubbs —
from the only other European example of it — the
Mycenaean. What, then, had become of it, and
how did it come to England? M. Reinach shows
by actual specimens of art-work that the Mycenaean
art tradition, and with it ' the flying gallop/ passed
slowly through Asia Minor into ancient Persia,
thence by Southern Siberia to the Chinese Empire,
as early as 150 B.C., and that 'the flying gallop/
so to speak, ' flourished ' there for centuries, and
was transmitted by the Chinese to the Japanese,
in whose drawings it is frequent. It was at last
finally brought back to Europe, and to the extreme
west of it, namely, England, by the importation
in the eighteenth century into England of large
66 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
numbers of Japanese works of art. M. Reinach
thinks that ' the flying gallop ' was devised as an
intentional expression of energy in movement. I
venture to hold the opinion that it was observed
by the Mycenaeans in the dog, in which Muybridge's
photographs (now before me) demonstrate that
it occurs regularly as an attitude of that animal's
quickest pace or gallop. It is easy to see 'the
flying gallop' in the case of the dog, since the
dog does not travel so fast as the galloping horse,
and can be more readily brought under accurate
vision on account of its smaller size. It is quite
in accordance with probability that the early
Mycenaean artists, having seen how the dog gallops,
erroneously proceeded to put the galloping horse
and all other animals which they wished ' to make
gallop ' into the same position."
This chapter may be brought to a close by
a few remarks in regard to the past and present
geographical distribution of the horse family and a
brief reference to certain Hindu myths and customs
relating to the horse. At the present day the
group, in a wild state, is restricted to the Old World,
where it is widely distributed in Asia and Africa,
while, as is shown in the next chapter, it existed
at a comparatively recent date in Eastern Europe.
In Asia it does not, however, extend farther east
than Western India and Mongolia, or further north
than the latter country and Tibet. The Asiatic
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 67
representatives of the group include the wild horse
and the animals known as chigetais, kiangs, and
onagers, which serve in some degree to connect the
former with the ass. The latter, in a wild state, is
restricted to North-eastern Africa ; while the east
and south of the African continent form the home
of the striped members of the family, commonly
known as zebras and quaggas.
During the Prehistoric Stone Ages, as is more
fully indicated in later chapters, the range of some
of the living Asiatic members of the group ex-
tended to Western Europe. At an earlier date
(Pliocene and Pleistocene) extinct species of horses
roamed over Central and Northern India. And at
some period horses doubtless ranged right across
Asia to Bering Strait, as remains of a species closely
allied to the existing horse occur on the* opposite
side of the Strait in the frozen soil of Alaska.
Moreover, throughout the later portion of the
Tertiary period numerous extinct representatives of
the family inhabited North America, where horses
or asses were quite unknown when that continent
was discovered by Columbus. Nor is this all, for
quite late in the Tertiary period, when South
America, which had previously been isolated for a
long epoch, became connected by land with North
America, members of the family traversed the
Isthmus of Darien, and made their way into
Argentina and Patagonia, where they developed
68 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
into several altogether peculiar types. It is
generally believed that at the time South America
was explored by the Spanish conquistadores the
native wild horses had become exterminated,
although it has been suggested that certain horses
seen by John Cabot in Argentina in 1530 were
remnants of the indigenous stock, as it is diffi-
cult to see how introduced animals had reached
that part of the country at such an early date.
As regards the birthplace of the family, it was
suggested by a famous American naturalist, Pro-
fessor E. D. Cope, that the horse tribe had two
independent centres of development from animals of
a more primitive type, one in the Old World, and a
second in North America. On the face of it, this
is, however, a very improbable theory, and a more
plausible suggestion has been subsequently made by
another American naturalist, Dr. W. D. Matthew,1
who wrote as follows : " I assume that since the
oreodonts [extinct American hog-like animals] and
peccaries [the New World representatives of the
swine] never reached the Old World, and the
camels did not reach it till the Pliocene, their
centres of dispersal were well to the south of the
[ancient] Bering Sea connection with the Old
World. I assume that since the horses are repre-
sented by a double evolutionary series, one in
1 "The Continuity of Development," Popular Science Monthly,
New York, 1910, p. 473.
POSITION AND STRUCTURE OF HORSE 69
Europe, a closer one in North America, their
centre of dispersal lay far enough north to spread
into Europe on the one hand, and North America
on the other, but that the latter was nearer and
more accessible ; i.e. that centre of dispersal was
North-eastern Asia or Alaska."
To deal adequately with the subject of the im-
portant part played by the horse in the development
of civilisation would require as much space as is
contained in the whole of the present volume ; but it
may be of interest to refer to certain Hindu myths
relating to the origin of the horse, especially as
these have a curious bearing on the classical fable
of Pegasus, the flying horse.
In the introduction to an Indian work on the
horse Colonel D. C. Phillott l writes on this subject
as follows : —
"According to Hindu legends, the horse was
created a winged animal, one that could fly and
run, and no man or god could snare it. Indra
wanted horses for his chariots, and requested the
sage Salihotra to deprive the horses of their wings.
Accordingly Salihotra, by yoga, a supernatural
power, derived by his austerities, accomplished
Indra's wish. The horses, now deprived of the
ability to visit far-off jungles in search of medicinal
herbs, approached Salihotra and entreated him to
1 The Faras-Nama-e Rangin, or the Book of the Horse, London,
1911.
70 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
write a book on the treatment of their diseases.
Salihotra consented, and composed the greatest work
on veterinary science known to the Hindus. This
work was called Salihotra after him ; gradually this
Sanskrit word came to mean veterinary science in
general and also a horse. To-day every regiment
of native cavalry has its salotris"
Later on the same author observes that " Besides
its use in war, the horse was important in Hindu
eyes as an animal of sacrifice. ... In the Vedic
period the sacrificial horse was first slain sacrificially
(i.e. by severing the head at one blow), and then
divided in portions, part being eaten by the
attendant priests, and part being offered as a burnt-
offering. In this age the object of the sacrifice
was to obtain wealth, prosperity, and male offspring.
"The Puranas, written several hundred years
after the Vedas, describe the asvamedha as a sacri-
fice of the highest order. Performed a hundred
times, it elevated the sacrificer to the throne of
Svarga, Indra's dominion, deposing even the king
of the gods. . . .
" In the succeeding epic period, z.£. after 1200 B.C.,
this sacrifice was made by kings to demonstrate
their claim to supremacy over neighbouring chiefs."
What, if any, connection there may be between
these ancient Hindu sacrifices and the slaughter
of horses at the obsequies of the old Scandinavian
chieftains, must be left for others to determine.
CHAPTER II
THE WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS
SINCE the time of Cuvier it has been known
that teeth 'and bones of horses are of common
occurrence in the Prehistoric and other superficial
formations of the continent of Europe and the
British Isles, and consequently that wild horses
inhabited this area contemporaneously with the
mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the men of
the Stone Age. There is, moreover, abundant
evidence to show that during that long-past age
primitive man hunted these wild horses for the
sake of their flesh ; the long bones of the limbs being
split for the purpose of extracting the marrow,
while in some instances the brain-chamber of the
skull has likewise been fractured and opened in order
that the brain itself might be used for food. Nor
is this all, for some of the men of the Stone Age
have left in the caves which afforded them shelter
from the weather crude but life-like outline sketches
of the horses they hunted for food, and subsequently
domesticated ; these sketches serving to show that,
in certain instances, at any rate, these Stone Age
horses were closely allied to the existing tarpan,
72 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
or wild horse, of the Zungarian district of Mongolia,
having big heads, but relatively slender limbs.
These Stone Age horses will be described later
on in this chapter; and attention may now be
directed to the evidence relating to the survival
of wild horses in Western Europe during the
historic period. In this connection it will be con-
venient to quote the summary of the evidence given
by Messrs. Heyn and Stallybrass in their work
entitled The Wanderings of Plants and Animals^
After pointing out that wild horses exist in Mongolia,
the authors proceed as follows : —
" That the horse in its original wildness also
roamed westward to Turkestan, over the steppes of
the present South-eastern and Southern Russia, and
to the foot of the Carpathians, seems likely enough ;
not so likely that even the forest regions of Central
Europe once abounded in troops of that animal. And
yet much historical testimony seems to put the
fact beyond a doubt. Varro speaks of Spanish
wild horses ; and Strabo writes, ' In Iberia there are
many deer and wild horses.' Wild horses as well
as wild bulls lived among the Alps, as we learn
again from Strabo ; and Pliny tells us, not only in
the Alps but in the north generally. Nor are the
Middle Ages wanting in proofs of the existence of
wild horses in Germany and the countries east of
Germany. At the time of Venantius Fortunatus
1 London, 1885, p. 37.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 73
the onager — under which name may be understood
the wild horse — was haunted in the Ardennes, as
well as bears, stags, and wild boars. In Italy wild
horses were seen for the first time during the rule
of the Longobards, under King Agilulf.
" In 732 Pope Gregory III. writes to St. Boni-
face: 'Thou hast permitted to some the flesh of
the wild horse, and to most that of the tame.
Henceforward, holy brother, thou shalt in no wise
allow it.' So, up to that time the Apostle of the
Germans had been very liberal, perhaps because in
his native island he had been accustomed from his
youth to the habit which appeared so horrible to
the Italian at Rome. Among the benedictions of
Monk Ekkehard of St. Gallen (about A.D. 1000) to
be pronounced over the meats to be served in the
refectory of that monastery, one refers to the flesh
of wild horses, which must therefore have been
eaten by the pious brethren. An old German
proverb says : ' A foal taken from a herd of wild
horses will sooner be tamed than a depraved man
learn to be ashamed.' In the Salksen-spiegel,
where it treats of women's outfit and dowry, it is
decreed that wild horses which have not always
been guarded shall not be reckoned as part of such
property. In a Westphalian document of 1316, the
fishing, game, and wild horses of a certain forest are
apportioned to one Hermann. Not alone in the
time of the Merovingians, but at the end of the
74 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
sixteenth century, wild horses would seem to have
lived in the Vosges Mountains, the wild borderland
between two nationalities ; for Rosslin, in his
account of Alsace and the Vosges (Strasburg, 1593),
thus circumstantially describes them : ' Horses that
be of their kind much wilder and shyer than the
stag ; also much more difficult to take even in
traps like the stag ; yet when they are tamed, which
is accomplished with great toil and trouble, they
make the very best horses, that equal those of
Spain and Turkey, and surpass them in many
things, and are hardier, for they are accustomed to
cold and to coarse food, and are sure-footed, being
as used to mountains and rocks as the chamois.'
"If wild horses were thus found in the cultivated
west and south of Germany, they must have existed
still longer in the wild country on the Baltic, in
Poland, and Russia. In fact, we find innumerable
proofs of this down to modern times. At the time
of Bishop Otto of Bamberg, in the first half of the
twelfth century, Pomerania was rich in all kinds of
game, including wild oxen and horses. At the
same period wild horses are mentioned as extant in
Silesia, whence Duke Sobeslaus in 1132 'carried
away many captives, and herds of wild mares not a
few.' It is known, and is confirmed by many literary
allusions, that till the time of the Reformation,
and even later, the woods of Prussia were inhabited
by wild horses. Toppen's History of Masovia
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 75
(Gesckichte Masurens, Danzic, 1870) says : * In the
time of the Teutonic Knights, wild horses and
other game were hunted for the sake of their skins.
In 1543 Duke Albert sent an order to the com-
mander at Lyck, bidding him take measures for the
preservation of the wild horses.' Proofs of the
horse being an object of chase in Poland and
Lithuania are found far into the seventeenth century.
As to Russia, it is sufficient to quote the remarkable
words of Vladimar Monomach, Prince of Chernigoo,
who lived from 105310 1125. He says of himself,
in his posthumous exhortation to his sons (pre-
served in the Lawrenthian Chronicle) : ' But at
Chernigoo I did this : I caught alive and bound
with mine own hands from ten to twenty wild
horses ; and as I rode along the river Ross (which
formed a sort of boundary between the Russians
and the wild Turkish Polovtsy), I caught similar
horses with my own hands.' '
Other writers, as quoted by Colonel Charles
Hamilton Smith,1 refer to the colour of these
Central European wild horses. Erasmus Stella,
for instance, writes of the wild horses of Prussia
as being like the domesticated species, but with
soft backs, unfit to be ridden, shy and difficult
to capture, but very good venison. They were
again referred to by Andrias Schneebergius, who
1 Jardine's Naturalist's Library, vol. xx. Horses, 2nd ed. p. 158 ;
the first edition was published in 1841.
76 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
states that they were like the domesticated breeds,
but mouse-coloured, with a dark streak along the
spine, and dark mane and tail. They were not
greatly alarmed at the sight of human beings ; but
were extremely difficult to mount. Like other
game, they were reserved for the table. The
mention of dark manes and tails is very important,
as it shows that these animals were not onagers,
which appear to have ranged into Europe during
the later part of the Tertiary period.
Reverting to Messers Heyn and Stallybrass,
it has to be mentioned that, after the account
quoted above, they suggest that these horses were
not really wild, but the descendants of horses
escaped from captivity.
"The fact," they write, "that in pre-civilised
times Central Europe, as far as Spain, was covered
with dense forests, makes the hypothesis that this
region was one of the natural homes of the horse
improbable, for this animal is a native of the steppes,
needing wide grass-lands and space in which its
speed could be of avail in escaping from the larger
beasts of prey. The very way in which some of
these facts are recorded seems to point to horses gone
wild rather than to those originally wild. When the
Vosges horses, though with difficulty, do get broken
in ; when Duke Sobeslaus drives home herds of
wild mares from Silesia ; when the fishing, the
game, and the vagi equi of a Westphalian district
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 77
are assigned to Hermann, and the untended horses
of an estate are not to be included in a bride's
outfit — in all these cases we may suppose that
only fugitive horses are meant. So the animals
found in Pomerania by St. Otto, and in Prussia
by the Teutonic Knights, may have been in a
wild state, and yet the progeny of merely fugitive
mares ; and this becomes the more probable the
longer those regions had been the scene of war
and rapine."
On the other hand, it should be borne in mind
that during the Stone Age Western Europe, as
already mentioned, was undoubtedly the home of
a small big-headed race of horse ; and nothing is
more likely than that herds of this or an allied race
should have survived in certain districts till a much
later epoch. As regards the argument that the
whole of Central Europe was a forest-clad region
during the Stone and Middle Ages, Dr. A. Nehring 1
has brought evidence to show that this is incorrect.
After mentioning his belief that these small
Prehistoric horses were the ancestors of the modern
breeds of Western Europe, Dr. Nehring2 proceeds
as follows : —
"The taming of the domesticated horse lasted,
in my opinion, into the later Stone Age, and during
that epoch there existed in Central and Western
1 Ueber Tundren und Steppen, derjetzt- und Vorzett, Berlin, 1890.
2 Ibid., p. 189.
78 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Europe vast steppe-like tracts, which supplied
suitable nutriment to the wild horses, and afforded
abundant space for their wanderings. . . .
" Even during the Middle Ages wild horses
may well have existed in Germany ; it is true that
the objection has been made that the wild horse
is a steppe-dwelling animal, and that in the Middle
Ages there were no steppes in Germany. But
this objection, in my opinion, is invalid. For
admitting that the wild horse was originally a
steppe-dwelling animal, it is by no means im-
probable that during the post-glacial epoch, when
the steppes were becoming constricted and the
country overgrown with dense forest, small, or
even large, herds of wild horses survived in
many districts."
These, it is added, may perfectly well have
lived in the open tracts between the forest to a
much later date without ever becoming forest
animals ; although, as mentioned later, some may
have become adapted to a forest life. Much the
same view as to the nature of these horses was
taken at an earlier date by Colonel Hamilton
Smith,1 who regarded them as the ancestors of the
modern eel-backed duns — that is to say, duns with
a dark spinal stripe. In the Middle Ages they had,
however, probably become more or less crossed
with escaped domestic horses, as will be shown to
1 Naturalist's Library ', vol. xx. Horses^ p. 159.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 79
have been the case with the wild horses of Russia ;
additional evidence in this direction being the
above-mentioned statement as to their coats being
mouse-colour, which appears to be an indication of
cross-breeding.
As regards the wild horses of the Volga-Ural
steppes, commonly called tarpan, the best account
is that given by the German traveller, Peter Simon
Pallas,1 in the early part of the nineteenth century,
who wrote as follows : —
" The wild horses inhabit the steppes of Great
Tatary and Mongolia, from the Dnieper to the
Altai, and through the whole of Central Asia, in
small herds, seldom fifty in number. Most of them
are reddish grey or pale grey in colour, but the
mane, the spinal stripe, and the tail are reddish
brown, the muzzle is whitish, and the region of the
mouth blackish. (There are, however, herds of
different colours among them, which are due to
wild horses having interbred with domesticated
animals escaped from captivity.) They are inferior
in stature to domesticated horses, and have larger
heads, more slender limbs, and somewhat bigger
ears, which are bent backwards at the tips in sickle-
fashion. The forehead is swollen above the eyes,
with a whorl of hair between the latter. The hoofs
are small and almost cylindrical. The mane extends
1 Zoogeographia Rosso-Asiatica^ St. Petersburg, vol. i. p. 260,
1811.
8o THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
from the space between the eyes [apparently
a misprint for ears] to the shoulder-blades ; it is
moderately long, and half upright. In winter the
coat is rough, long, and waved on the back ; the tail
is of moderate length. Young foals can be very
easily tamed, but the adults are untamable. They
gallop with wonderful speed, and scent human
beings from a great distance, especially when they
get their wind. . . . They frequent open undulating
steppes, and avoid forests and mountainous locali-
ties."
If, as is almost certainly the case, the word
eyes (augeri) is a misprint for ears (ohren) —
for the author mentions the presence of a whorl
of hair between the eyes — and if we except the
absence of mention of the scanty hairing of the
tail, the foregoing description might serve very
well for that of the modern Mongolian tarpan.
Other evidence was collected at an earlier date
(1766) by S. G. Gmelin,1 who states that the
Russian tarpan was a small, clumsy-headed, mouse-
coloured horse, with a short wavy mane, and the
fronts of the legs black from the knees and hocks
downwards. In some examples the ears were
short and horse-like, but in others longer and more
ass-like. The tail was in some cases bushy, and in
others scantily haired, but always shorter than
in domesticated horses. This account appears to
1 Reise durch Russland, St. Petersburg (1770-84).
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 81
refer largely, if not entirely, to hybrid tarpans.
The Russian tarpan is now extinct, but one skeleton
is preserved in the Zoological Museum at Moscow,
and a second at St. Petersburg. One of the last
survivors would appear to have been a gelding
received in August 1884 at the Moscow Zoological
Gardens, which had been taken as a foal in the
government of Cherson in 1866. According to
Dr. W. Salensky l this animal agreed in the matter
of colour with Gmelin's description : but it had a
forelock, and the mane fell over to the left side.
There were no chestnuts en the hind legs. That
this animal was a hybrid is practically certain.
The great majority of naturalists have refused to
admit the claims of the Russian tarpan in their
earlier days to be regarded as truly wild animals.
This view, however, Dr. Nehring,2 as already
mentioned, considers to be erroneous ; and it
seems most probable that even in Pallas's time there
were some Russian studs of more or less nearly
pure-bred tarpan, but that as time went on these
became more and more mixed with escaped domes-
ticated horses, so that to find pure-bred tarpan it
became necessary to go further and further east-
ward.
A very important contribution to the history of
1 Wissenschaftliche Resultate der von N. M. Przeivalski nach
Central-Asien untergennomenen Reisen, Mammalia, pt. \., St. Peters-
burg, 1902.
8 Ueber Tundren und Steppen^ pp. 92, 93.
F
82 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the tarpan, although treated by naturalists with
neglect, was furnished by Colonel Hamilton Smith.1
After referring to the doubts which had been enter-
tained by naturalists with regard to the existence
of truly wild horses, this author proceeds as
follows : —
" Whatever may be the lucubrations of naturalists
in their cabinets, it does not appear that the Tatar
or even the Cossack nations have any doubt upon
the subject, for they assert that they can distin-
guish a feral 2 breed from the wild by many tokens ;
and naming the former takja and muz,in, denomi-
nate the real wild horse tarpan and tarpani. We
had some opportunity of making personal inquiries
on wild horses among a considerable number of
Cossacks of different parts of Russia, and among
Bashkirs, Kirghis, and Kalmuks, and with a sufficient
recollection of the statements of Pallas, and Buffon's
information obtained from M. Sanchez, to direct
the questions to most of the points at issue. From
the answers of Russian officers of this irregular
cavalry, who spoke French and German, we drew
the general conclusion of their decided belief in a
true wild and untameable species of horse, and in
herds that were of mixed origin. Those most ac-
quainted with a nomad life, and in particular an
1 Naturalises Library, Horses, p. 160, 1841.
2 " Feral " denotes animals originally escaped from captivity, as
opposed to truly wild ones.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 83
orderly Cossack attached to a Tatar chief as Russian
interpreter, furnished us with the substance of the
following notice : —
"The tarpani form herds of several hundred,
divided into smaller troops, each headed by a stal-
lion ; they are not found unmixed, excepting
towards the borders of China ; they prefer wide,
open, elevated steppes, and always proceed in lines
or files, usually with the head to windward, moving
slowly forward while grazing — the stallions leading
and occasionally going round their own troop :
young stallions are often at some distance, and
single, because they are expelled by the older until
they can form a troop of young mares of their own ;
their heads are seldom observed to be down for any
length of time ; they utter now and then a kind of
snort, with a low neigh. . . .
" These animals are found in the greatest purity
on the Karakoum (south of the lake of Aral) and
the Syr Daria, near Kusnek, and on the banks of
the river Tom, in the territory of the Kalkas, the
Mongolian deserts, and the solitudes of the Gobi :
within the Russian frontier there are, however, some
adulterated herds in the vicinity of the fixed settle-
ments, distinguishable by the variety of their colour
and a selection of residence less remote from human
habitations.
<c Real tar pans are not larger than ordinary mules,
their colour invariably tan, Isabella, or mouse,
84 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
being all shades of the same livery, and only
varying in depth by the growth or decrease of a
whitish surcoat, longer than the hair, increasing
in midsummer and shedding in May : during the
cold season it is long, heavy, and soft, lying so close
as to feel like a bear's fur, and then is entirely
grizzled ; in summer much falls away, leaving only
a certain quantity on the back and loins ; the head
is small, the forehead greatly arched, the ears far
back, either long or short, the eyes small and
malignant, the chin and muzzle beset with bristles,
the neck rather thin, crested with a thick rugged
mane, which, like the tail, is black, as also the
pasterns, which are long : the hoofs are narrow,
high, and rather pointed ; the tail, descending only
to the hocks, is furnished with coarse and rather
curly or wavy hairs right up to the crupper ; the
croup as high as the withers : the voice of the
tarpan is loud, and shriller than that of a domestic
horse ; and their action, standing, and general
appearance resemble somewhat those of vicious
mules."
It is added that the genuine wild tarpans are
migratory, wandering northward in summer, and
returning south in autumn ; in this respect they
differ markedly from the hybrid muzin.
The above description, it is important to repeat,
was drawn up after the Peace of Paris in 1814
by Colonel Smith from Cossack reports, and it is
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 85
therefore only to be expected that in certain parti-
culars, such as the alleged smallness of the head, the
statement that the tail does not reach below the
hocks, and the absence of definite mention of the
white muzzle and the scanty hairing of the upper part
of the tail, it should not accord precisely with the
tarpan as now known to us. On the other hand,
the reference to individual variation in colour and
in the length of the ears is very noteworthy, and in
accordance with the facts.
Before proceeding further, reference may be
made to the description and figure in Colonel
Smith's book (p. 304, pi. xvii.) of an animal for
which the author proposed the name of Asinus
eqmileus. This animal was kept some time
previous to 1841 in a livery stable in Park Lane,
and was brought to the notice of Colonel Smith
by Sir Joseph Banks, who had been informed
by Lord Rivers of its existence, and that it indi-
cated a new species brought from the Chinese
frontier north-east of Calcutta. According to
further information supplied at the stable, the
animal was said to have come from some part of
Chinese Tatary, that is to say, Mongolia.
After mentioning that at first he had some doubt
whether the animal might not be a variety of the
chigetai or the kiang, its describer proceeds to state
that, on examination, he was convinced it was
much nearer to the horse, adding that he believed
86 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
it to be identical with the breed or species known
to the Chinese as "yo-to-tze."
The animal, which was a male, was described
as being not quite five years old, and standing
.4 ft. (12 hands) at the withers. In form it was
distinctly "ewe-necked"; the mane, although
longer than that of an ass, was upright ; the tail
(which, from the picture, appears to have been cut)
was scantily supplied with long hairs nearly to
its root, resembling that of a rat-tailed horse ; and
callosities were wanting on the hind-limbs.
As regards colour, Colonel Smith writes that it
was entirely of a yellowish red clay tint, "except-
ing the black tips of the ears, the mane, and long
hair on the tail, a well-defined line along the back
extending down the middle of the tail, crossed by a
broad bar of the same colour over the shoulders,
three or four streaks very distinctly marked over the
knees and hocks, the cannon-joints brown, and the
fetlocks and pasterns down to the hoofs black, the
hoofs and hide dark, the eyes brown."
With the exception of certain remarks on an
Arab-like appearance of the muzzle and nose, this
description would apply fairly well to some of the
impure tarpans characterised by having fawn-
coloured instead of white muzzles. It is true that
the absence of chestnuts on the hind-limbs appears
to be a difference, but these are always small in the
Mongolian tarpan, and were sometimes absent in
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 87
the half-bred Russian animals. Bars frequently
occur on the limbs of both types, and traces of
a shoulder-stripe may be detected in some in-
dividuals.
If this animal was really a half-bred tarpan, it is
important to notice that the name A sinus equuleus
antedates the under-mentioned Equus przevalskii.
In spite of Colonel Hamilton Smith's clear
assertion that the true wild tarpan was a native of
the borders of the Gobi Desert and the adjacent dis-
tricts, naturalists persisted in applying that name to
the Russian half-breeds, and most of them more or
less completely ignored the evidence of the exist-
ence of truly wild horses at the present day. There
matters remained till the year 1881, when Mr. J. S.
Poliakow * described the skin and skull of a reputed
wild horse obtained a short time previously by the
well-known Russian explorer Colonel N. M. Prze-
walski, to whom it had been presented by an
official at Zaisan, and in whose honour it was
named Equus przevalskii. Only a single specimen
was obtained, and this was described as being
intermediate in characters between the horse on
the one hand and the kiang and onager on the
other, having chestnuts on all four limbs as in the
former, but only the lower half of the tail clothed
1 Proc. Imp. Russian Geographical Society -, 1881, pp. 1-20; the
paper is translated into English in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5,
vol. viii. pp. 1 6, 26, 1 88 1.
88 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
with long hair, as in the two latter. The general
colour was described as dun, with a yellowish tinge
on the back, becoming lighter towards the flanks
and almost white on the belly, with no dark dorsal
stripe. The short and upright mane, which was
not continued forward as a forelock, was dark
brown ; and the long coat was wavy on the head.
The skull and hoofs were stated to be horse-like.
In referring to this skin, Sir William Flower1
made no mention of Hamilton Smith's account of
the Mongolian tarpan, but suggested that the speci-
men might possibly prove to be an accidental
hybrid between the horse and the kiang.
Twenty years after the description of the type
specimen of Equus przevalskii — that is to say, in
1907 — the Duke of Bedford received a number of
tarpan colts from the Kobdo district of Western
Mongolia, two of which were sent in the following
year to the London Zoological Gardens, when one
of them was figured by Dr. P. L. Sclater.2 About
the same time living specimens and a large number
of skins were received at St. Petersburg, which
formed the basis of the monograph by Dr. Salensky
published in 1902, of which the full title has been
already quoted.3
Adult tarpan cannot apparently be captured, but,
by taking certain precautions, the Kirghiz are able
1 The Horse^ p. 79. 2 Proc. Zool. Soc., 1902, pi. xiii.
3 Supra, p. 8 1.
PLATE VIII
FlGo I
FIG. 2
FIG. i. A Mongolian Pony Mare, probably a half-bred Tarpan, used
as a foster-mother to the Tarpan Colts brought to England for the
Duke of Bedford.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 89
to ride down and take the foals, which are snared
in nooses. Those received in 1907 by the Duke of
Bedford were brought from the Kobdo district of
Western Mongolia by the agents of Mr. Carl
Hagenbeck of Hamburg, who enlisted an army of
Kirghiz for their capture. These foals were taken
in three different areas in the neighbourhood of
Kobdo ; those from each area showing certain colour-
differences, into the consideration of which it will
be unnecessary to enter in this place ; and it will
suffice to state that these differences suggest that
there has been sortie admixture with domesticated
breeds.
The genuine wild tarpan may, however, be
described as a big-headed pony, with a convex
forehead, a short erect mane, and a tail covered
with comparatively .short hair on its basal portion,
but terminating in a long tuft. Chestnuts and ergots
are developed on all four limbs, as in most domesti-
cated horses ; the limbs are moderately slender, and
the front hoofs are not unduly broad. The general
colour of the upper-parts is dun, but on the nose
and under-parts it becomes more or less markedly
whitish ; the mane (which does not extend on to
the forehead to form a forelock), the tips of the
ears, and the lower portions of the legs are black
in front, and there is a distinct, although narrow
dorsal stripe, while more or less defined shoulder-
stripes and traces of barring on the upper parts of
90 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the limbs are frequently developed. Although short
in summer, the coat becomes long and shaggy in
winter, when the mane displays a slight tendency to
fall to one side ; the hair on the fetlocks and lower
jaw likewise showing a decided increase in length
at the latter season.
The dentition is characterised by the relative
shortness of the interval between the outermost, or
third, incisor and the first tooth of the cheek-series,
and the absolutely and relatively large size of the
cheek-teeth themselves, as shown in plate v. fig. i.
This large size of the cheek-teeth is indicated by
the circumstance that in a skull with a basal
length of i8f the length of the row of six cheek-
teeth is 7^ inches, or only one-quarter of an inch
less than that of the corresponding teeth in the
skull of a shire mare, of which the basal length
is 23 inches. Structurally the upper cheek-teeth
are characterised by the absence of complex
folding in the rings of enamel surrounding the
central pits, and the relatively great length of the
worn grinding surface of the anterior inner pillar,
which is produced considerably in advance of the
connection with the main body of the tooth, and is
much flattened on the inner side ; this feature being
more pronounced in the premolars than in the
molars. In a Dartmoor pony, with a skull of about
the same size as that of a tarpan, the length of the
row of cheek-teeth was only 5! inches ; but this
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 91
is not quite a fair comparison, as the pony was
an older animal than the tarpan, and the length of
the tooth-row shortens with age. It is noteworthy
that there appears to be no greater tendency to
develop the small first upper premolar, or wolf-
tooth, in the tarpan than in ordinary domesti-
cated horses.
Relying on the local colour-differences referred
to above, Dr. P. Matschie,1 of the Berlin Museum,
has expressed the opinion that there are two kinds
of tarpan, namely Equus przevalskii, with a dun-
yellow colour, very dark mane, and black legs, which
he considers to be restricted to the neighbourhood of
Zagan-nor, a lake lying to the south-east of Kobdo.
On the other hand, the tarpan of the Urungu district
to the west of Kobdo, and the valley of the Ebi,
which are lighter in colour, with no black on the
front of the legs, and a lighter mane, have been
named by him E. hagenbecki. There can, however,
be little doubt that the difference between the two
types is due to an admixture of blood ; and it is
highly significant that the one which departs from
the typical form occupies the western area or, in
other words, is nearer to districts where there were
formerly herds of half-bred tarpan. At the con-
clusion of his memoir on the tarpan, Dr. Salensky
1 " Gibt es in Mittelasien mehrere Arten von Echten Wildpferden ?"
Naturivissenschaftliche Wochenschrift, Berlin, vol. xviii. pp. 581-583,
1903.
92 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
expressed the opinion that Equus przevalskii is
certainly a distinct species, or race, although he
declined to commit himself to any definite view as
to its relationship to domesticated horses. In an
appendix, dealing with a paper by Professor T.
Noack, he admitted, however, that there is much
to be said in favour of the view that a connecting
link between the tarpan and some of the domesti-
cated breeds may have once existed, and that this
link may have been formed by one of the small
horses of the Stone Age.
Before discussing the question as to whether the
tarpan ought to be regarded as a species by itself
or a race of the species typified by domesticated
horses, it will be well to devote a few paragraphs
to the Prehistoric horses of the Stone Age.
Structurally the molar teeth of these Prehistoric
horses are of the same type as those of domesti-
cated horses ; but, nevertheless, in the early days of
palseontological science a number of scientific names
were given to these fossil horses on the evidence
of isolated molar teeth and other specimens which
are no longer available for comparison, and, if they
were, would be quite insufficient for determining
the particular type of horse to which they pertained.
In 1832, for instance, a German palaeontologist,
Hermann von Meyer,1 proposed the name Equus
fossilis for a horse represented by remains from the
1 Palaologiea, p, 79; Frankfurt-ani-Maine, 1832.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 93
superficial (diluvial) formations of his own country ;
and the title E. adamiticus had been given a dozen
years earlier by Schlotheim 1 to the remains of the
same or a closely allied type of horse.
At a later date the English naturalist Sir
Richard (then Professor) Owen,2 referred an upper
molar of a horse from Kent's Hole Cavern, near
Torquay, to von Meyer's E. fossilis ; stating that
it differed from molars of domesticated horses by its
narrower crown — a feature that may perhaps be
due to its belonging to the deciduous, or milk,
series. Other upper molars from the cavernous
fissures in the Devonian limestone of Oreston,
between Plymouth and Tavistock, were assigned
by Sir Richard Owen3 to a second species, under
the name of E. plicidens, in reference to the sup-
posed more complex foldings, or pleatings, of the
enamel in the central islands, or pits, of the grind-
ing surface of the crown.
Twenty-five years later the same naturalist4
described a number of equine remains from the
cavern of Bruniquel, in the department of Tarn-et-
Garonne, France. These, in place of being isolated
molars, comprised specimens of the complete denti-
tion, as well as limb-bones ; and, from the relatively
large size of the former as compared with the latter,
1 Petrefaktenkunde, p. n ; 1820.
2 British Fossil Mammals and Birds, p. 383, London, 1846.
3 Op. tit., p. 392, and Rep. Brit. Assoc. for 1843, p. 281, 1844.
4 Owen, Phil. Trans, Roy. Soc. London, 1869, p. 544.
94 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Sir R. Owen estimated the shoulder-height of the
Bruniquel horse — for which, ignoring the earlier
names quoted above, he proposed the designation
Equus spelceus — at about 1 3 J hands, or 4^ feet.
Now it can scarcely be doubted that this small
Bruniquel Prehistoric horse was identical with the
small big-headed horse drawn on horn by the Stone
Age men of La Madelaine, in the department of
Dordogne (pi. vii. fig. 2), and the name E. spelczus
will therefore be applicable to both.
The bones and teeth of horses from the super-
ficial formations of the Continent and Great Britain
indicate, however, great differences in the bodily
size of the animals to which they belonged ; and
it has, therefore, been inferred that there were
several distinct types of wild horses during the
Stone Age. The evolution and differentiation of
these types, it has been suggested, may have been
due to the disappearance of the open tundras and
steppes of Central Europe, and their replacement by
forest, in consequence of which some of the wild
horses took to a partially forest-life, which would lead
to the development of a heavy and massive type of
limb, while others, again, frequented the borders of
deserts, where, it may be, they could exist only by
the aid of man's cultivation of the soil in the oases.
From the study of remains obtained from Anau,
in Turkestan, Dr. J. U. Duerst1 considers that
1 In R. Pumpelly's Explorations in Turkestan, vol. ii. p. 309;
Washington, Carnegie Institute, 1908.
PLATE IX
FIG. i
FIG. 2
Fro. i. Skull of a Young Tarpan Mare.
FIG. 2. Skull of an Arab Mare, showing the sinuous profile ; pft preorbital
depression.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 95
from the Prehistoric horse of the diluvial period,
which he regards as a local race of the species typi-
fied by domesticated horses, and therefore calls
Equus caballus fossilis, three other races were
developed in the late Stone Age. These he desig-
nates respectively as the desert-type (E. caballus
pumpellii\ the steppe-type (E. c. germanicus
or robustus], and the forest-type (E. c. nekringt).
In a greater or less degree each of these, together
with the rather earlier type identified by Dr. Duerst
with E. c. fossilis, exhibits evidence of relationship
with the Mongolian tarpan, which is regarded by
the same writer as the direct descendant of the last-
named.
The desert-type, as represented by the Anau
horse of the Prehistoric deposits of Turkestan, is
regarded by Dr. Duerst1 as the direct descendant
of E. c. fossilis. It was the smallest of all the
Prehistoric domesticated horses, and may never
have existed in a wild state. Having limbs of
much more slender form than those of the tarpan,
and very narrow hoofs, it was characterised by the
medium width of the forehead as compared with
the length of the base of the skull ; 2 some of these
features affiliating it to the Arab type, of which it
1 Op. tit., p. 431.
2 Eastern and western horses are distinguished by a difference
in the proportion of the width of the forehead to the basal length of
the skull. As the proportion is low in the former, they are called
" broad-fronted " ; whereas the western horses, in which it is high,
are styled " narrow-fronted."
96 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
is considered by Dr. Duerst1 to have been the
ancestor, although he also mentions near relation-
ship to the tarpan. Bred, like the Arab, for speed
and a desert-life, it is believed by the same writer
to have been imported during the Bronze and Iron
Ages into Europe, where it is well represented by
the small horse of La Tene.2 Dr. Duerst thus
regards all existing domesticated horses as derived
from a single ancestral wild type, namely, the
extinct forerunner of the tarpan ; such differences
as characterise the various breeds being due to
adaptive development. The subject is again referred
to in the fifth chapter ; but it may be mentioned
here that the evidence for the derivation of the Arab
from the Anau horse does not appear conclusive,
as no account is taken of the possibility of that
animal having a mixture of Arab and tarpan blood.
Very different from the last is the forest-type
(£. c. nehringi\ which was a small, stout horse,
or pony, believed by Dr. Duerst 8 to have originated
in the primeval forests of Germany, where it
gradually became more and more stunted in size
and thicker in the limbs, and where it was eventually
domesticated. According, however, to Professor
P. Matschie,4 this small forest horse, or pony, is
identical with a race from Wlirtemberg described
1 Loc. tit. 2 Ibid., p. 431. 3 Loc. tit.
4 " Allerlei aus der Geschichte der Einhufer," Monatshefte fur
Naturwiss. Unterricht^ vol. ii. p. 303, Leipsic, 1909.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 97
at an earlier date by Dr. Woldrich as E. c. fossilis
tatifrons, which, in the opinion of the former writer,
may have been the ancestor of the European
Bronze Age pony, identified by Dr. Duerst with his
E. c. pumpellii. The so-called Celtic pony, to
which fuller reference is made in the sequel, is
considered by Dr. Duerst to be a derivative from
his forest type.
The steppe-type of the same writer, as primarily
represented by E. c. germanicus of Nehring, from
Westeregeln, Thiede, and Quedlinburg, was a
bigger animal than either of the preceding, with
the proportionately narrow forehead characteristic
of the heavy horses of Western Europe. How
nearly this type was connected with the horse of
Solutre", in the Dordogne, north of Lyons, which
was probably identical with the one depicted on
the walls of the Madelaine Cave, in the same
department (plate vii. fig. 2), and thus with
the Bruniquel horse, is not clear, although it is
probable that all these were of the same general
character, and intimately allied to the Mongolian
tarpan. Indeed Dr. Duerst states that some of the
Solutre" bones are absolutely indistinguishable from
those of the latter. If this steppe-type be insepar-
able from the Bruniquel, Madelaine, and Solutre'
horses, it will be obvious that the name E. c. spelceus^
as the earlier,1 should replace E. c. germanicus.
Supra, p. 94.
G
98 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Although the cave, or rock-shelter, of Solutre
could scarcely accommodate more than half-a-dozen
families, however tightly packed, the entrance was
protected by two walls of horse -bones, one a
hundred and fifty feet long, ten high, and twelve
thick, and the other forty feet long and five high.
M. Toussaint, who explored this shelter of Prehis-
toric man, roughly computed the number of animals
whose bones were thus stacked as forty thousand.
So many in one spot could hardly have been tame ;
and, if they were, a large proportion would be old,
but every one was quite young, many of them
being foals, so that it is evident they had been
killed in the chase, cut up, and brought home for
eating.
It would be natural to conclude, writes Mr.
F. Boyle in the CornhilL Magazine for May 1911,
" that the hunters were horsemen. Boys would
jump upon the back of a quarry wounded and
overtaken ; the sport would teach them to ride,
and presently they would take to catching foals.
All the steps of the process follow logically. But
perhaps the first did not occur to our remote fore-
fathers. Asiatics never thought of riding till they
were infinitely more advanced ; Gauls and Britons
still clung to the chariot in Caesar's time. The
lake-dwellers were horsemen certainly — we find
their bits and accoutrements. And they used the
same breed of horse which the men of Solutre^ ate,
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 99
as the bones show. But that was a thousand years
later, perhaps two or three or more."
In this place it may be mentioned that much
has been made of certain differences in shape and
in the degree of the hairiness of the head in the
Prehistoric sketches of horses ; such differences
being regarded as indicative of racial distinction.
But Professor H. F. Osborn 1 has well remarked
that it is quite probable these differences may be
due to some of the animals having been depicted
in the winter and others in the summer coat.
A considerable amount of uncertainty and con-
fusion exists, it will be noticed, in the foregoing
determinations, especially in regard to the matter
of scientific nomenclature ; but the confusion be-
comes intensified when the views expressed above
are contrasted with those held by Professor J. C.
Ewart. According to one of the latest publications
of that writer,2 at least three species or races of
wild horses inhabited Western Europe in Pre-
historic times. The first of these constitutes his
steppe-type, which seems to be typified by the
Mongolian tarpan, but is provisionally taken to in-
clude the La Madelaine horse, for both of which
the name E. przevalskii appears to be employed.
This type, which is quite different from the one
1 Century Magazine, November 1904, p. 15.
2 " The Animal Remains at Newstead," in J. Curie's A Roman
Frontier Post and its People, at Newstead, Melrose, p. 362, Glasgow
1911.
ioo THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Dr. Duerst describes under the same name, is
characterised by the large and heavy head and the
relatively slender limbs, the face being long and
narrow.
The second of Mr. Ewart's groups is the so-
called plateau-type, which appears to be typified
by bones and teeth from French and English
Pleistocene deposits, and is said to be a fine-headed,
slender-limbed pony, standing from 1 2 to 13 hands
at the shoulder, with short grinding surfaces to the
anterior pillars of the upper cheek-teeth, and a
forehead of medium proportionate breadth. For
this plateau-type Professor Ewart, on page 363 of
the work just cited, adopts the name Equus agilis ;
remarking in a foot-note that it includes a northern
or "Celtic," and a southern or " Libyan," variety.
The name E. agilis was proposed by him in 1910*
to replace E. gracilis, which he published in iQOQ,2
but subsequently found to be inadmissible on
account of having been previously used in another
sense. In the original publication of the last-
mentioned name, it was stated that it was meant
to replace the inadmissible Asinus fossilis of Owen,
and it was likewise mentioned that it was intended
to include, as varieties, the author's E. celticus and
the E. libycus of Professor Ridge way. Such nomen-
clature is, however, totally inadmissible, the name
1 Ewart, Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh, vol. xxx. p. 299, 1910.
1 Ewart, Proc. Royal Soc. London, vol. xxxi. p. 392, 1909.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 101
Equus caballus celticus having been proposed by
Professor Ewart1 in 1903 for the so-called Celtic
pony of the North of Ireland, the Hebrides, Faroes,
and Iceland, and therefore antedating the name
agilis.
The third modification recognised by the same
author 2 is the forest-type, which is said to be repre-
sented by remains from the so-called "elephant-
bed " at Kemp Town, near Brighton, and by the
aforesaid horse from the Palaeolithic station at
Solutre, northward of Lyons. This forest-type,
which, it will be noticed, is different from the one
so called by Dr. Duerst, is stated to have been a
long low horse, probably characterised by a rela-
tively broad and concave forehead, short, thick
cannon-bones, wide hoofs, and long grinding surfaces
to the anterior pillars of the upper cheek-teeth.
The name Equus robustus (which Dr. Duerst regards
as a synonym of germanicus) is adopted by Pro-
fessor Ewart for his forest-type, as typified by the
Solutre horses.
The recognition by the writer last named of a
so-called Siwalik type — that is to say, one related
to the Pliocene Equus sivalensis of India — among
the remains at Newstead scarcely demands serious
notice. On the other hand, it is important to
mention that Dr. Marcellin Boule3 has described
1 Nature, London, vol. Ixvii. p. 237, 1903.
2 " Animal Remains at Newstead," loc. tit., p. 363.
3 Annales de P ateonto logic , Paris, vol. v., 1910.
102 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
from the Grottes de Grimaldi, in Monaco, the
remains of a large form of horse, which he identifies
with the existing Equus caballus, but to which,
very judiciously, he does not assign a separate
racial name. This Prehistoric horse approaches
the modern Percheron breed, to which it may have
been ancestral. Bones and teeth indicating horses
of equally large size have been obtained from the
Brighton " elephant-bed."
From this long and somewhat wearisome survey
of recent views in regard to the Prehistoric horses
of Western Europe, which is essential in order to
arrive at a satisfactory conclusion as to the syste-
matic place of the Mongolian tarpan, it will be
evident that during the period in question there
were several more or less distinct types of wild
European horses, differing from one another in
bodily size, in the relative breadth of the skull, the
degree of slenderness or stoutness of the cannon-
bones, in the width of the hoofs, and to some degree
perhaps in the conformation of the cheek-teeth.
Some naturalists regard these different forms — or at
all events a few of them — as distinct species ; but
by Messrs. Duerst and Boule they appear to be all
considered as races, or phases, of the species typified
by the domesticated Equus caballus — a view in
which I myself fully concur. These races are not,
however, precisely comparable to the geographical
races of existing mammals recognised by modern
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 103
naturalists, no two of which ever occur in one and
the same district. The races of Prehistoric horses,
on the other hand, appear to have been dependent
on environment, or "station," one being developed
for a life on the open steppe, another in the forest,
and another on grassy plateaus ; and their remains
may accordingly be met with in one and the same
deposit, or, at all events, in closely approximated
localities.
Furthermore, most, or all, of these Prehistoric
types show more or less evident signs of near
relationship to the Mongolian tarpan, while some of
the existing Connemara ponies have been stated to
bear the impress of descent from that animal,1 or
rather, it should be said, from its Prehistoric
representatives of the Madelaine and Bruniquel
caverns.
Before proceeding further it will, however, be
advisable to refer to certain considerations in regard
to domesticated horses. In the first place, attention
should be directed to the fact that the name Equus
caballus was given by the Swedish naturalist
Linnaeus to domesticated horses in general, without
mention of any particular breed to represent what
naturalists call the type, that is to say, the typical
form of that species.
The same uncertainty obtains, however, with
regard to certain species of European wild animals,
1 See R. I. Pocock, Harmsworth Natural History, vol. ii. p. 796.
104 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
such as the red deer, the blue hare, and the fox, of
which several local races are now known to exist ;
but naturalists have agreed to solve the difficulty by
taking the Scandinavian, or rather the Swedish,
representatives of such species as the respective
types.
This being so, it is not only permissible, but
likewise imperative, if consistency is to be main-
tained, to follow the same course in the case of the
domesticated horse. Scandinavian horses may
therefore be regarded as the typical representatives
of the £quus caballus of Linnaeus ; and since
among these the "eel-backed dun" is a very
common and characteristic breed in Norway, it may
perhaps be permissible to take this as the actual
type of the species. This course was, indeed, pro-
posed some years ago by Professor Ewart, but
subsequently abandoned on account of the circum-
stance that dun horses may be produced by cross-
ing two distinct Scottish breeds. This fact, in the
professor's opinion, indicates that the dun is not a
true breed ; but it may be pointed out that if this
view is admitted the typical blue rock-pigeon is not
a true breed, let alone a species, because, as was
pointed out by Darwin in his Animals and Plants
under Domestication? several distinct breeds of
pigeons will, when crossed, revert to that type.
And as what holds good for pigeons will like-
1 Vol. i. p. 64.
PLATE X
FIG. i
FIG. 2
FlG. i. A Norwegian Dun Stallion, showing dapple.
FlG. 2. A Mongolian Polo Pony.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 105
wise obtain in the case of horses, it follows that
the production of duns by crossing affords decisive
evidence of the antiquity of that type, being, in fact,
a case of reversion to the ancestral form.
In colour the Norwegian so-called eel-dun is
very like the tarpan, showing a narrow but distinct
black dorsal stripe, and having the front surfaces
of the limbs and the whole of the fetlocks black,
while occasionally there may be traces of a shoulder-
stripe and of barring on the upper part of the legs.
In general form the breed is low in stature, but
strongly built, with short, stout limbs. It should be
added that, as mentioned later, two types of Nor-
wegian duns are recognised ; one of these being
shown in plate x. fig. i.
On the other hand, the head and cheek-teeth
are relatively smaller than in the tarpan, the front
hoofs are broader in comparison to the hind pair,
while the mane is comparatively long and pendent,
with a forelock, and the tail is well haired up to the
root. Such differences may, however, perfectly
well be regarded as the results of domestication, due
in part, it may be, to selection, or in part, perhaps, to
crossing with a second wild type, or its descendants.
This view in regard to the antiquity of the
Norwegian dun type and its -affinity to the wild
tarpan accords exactly with the opinion of Darwin,
who in the work already cited 1 wrote as follows : —
1 Page 63.
io6 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
" With respect to the primitive colour of the
horse having been dun, Colonel Hamilton Smith
has collected a large body of evidence showing
that this tint was common in the East as far
back as the time of Alexander, and that the wild
horses of Western Asia and Eastern Europe now
are, or recently were, of various shades of dun.
It seems that not very long ago a wild breed of
dun-coloured horses with a spinal stripe was pre-
served in the royal parks in Prussia. I hear from
Hungary that the inhabitants of that country look
at the duns with a spinal stripe as the aboriginal
stock, and so it is in Norway."
To this it may be added that dun horses,
although not necessarily of pure blood, were formerly
common in Spain, where, as in some other parts
of Europe, they were considered to be the worst
type of all ; the eel-backed being, however, a little
better than the self-coloured dun.1 Perhaps this
is the reason why in the sixth chapter of Revela-
tion the " pale horse," nrxo? xXwpos, that is to say,
the horse of the colour of withered grass, or dun,
is assigned to Death.
Be this as it may, the general tendency of the
foregoing evidence is to show that the eel-dun
horses of Norway and other parts of Europe not
only represent a very ancient type, but that they
1 See Ridge way, Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse,
pp. 260, 348.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 107
inherit their colour, either directly or by reversion,
from the wild tarpan. This led Darwin * to conclude
that all the existing breeds of horses are probably
descended " from a single dun-coloured, more or
less primitive stock, to which our horses occasion-
ally revert." And although in the light of the
foregoing evidence as to the existence of more
than one type of Prehistoric wild horse in Europe,
this conclusion requires some little modification, it is
probably not far from the truth, though the Arab
may perhaps form an exception to the generalisation.
It being admitted, then, that the wild Mongolian
tarpan is related not only to some of the existing
horses and ponies of Western Europe, but likewise
to their Prehistoric ancestors, it seems only logical
that it should not be separated from the species
typified by domesticated horses, and its name will
therefore be Equus caballus przevalskii, or, at all
events, until it is definitely proved to be entitled to
a designation of earlier date.
Adult stallions of the Mongolian tarpan stand
about 13.1 hands (53 inches) at the shoulder; and,
as might naturally be expected, its nearest domesti-
cated representatives are the ponies of the same
district, which measure from about 12.2 to 13.3
hands, and in their rough, untrimmed coats are
very like their wild relatives, although they have
developed long, flowing manes, with forelocks, and
1 op. «v., p. 65.
io8 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
tails which sweep the ground and are thickly haired
to the root. These ponies are kept by the Buriats
and other Mongol tribes in millions, and are
extremely hardy and enduring. Mr. C. W. Camp-
bell x states that " a good specimen of the Mongol
pony is perhaps the best of his size in the world
for general use. The head and shoulders will be
too heavy for elegance, the eyes none too full,
the muzzle and crest coarse, and the manners too
often objectionable, but the quarters, loins, and
legs are good, the barrel is deep and long, and
there is no deficiency in bone. . . . The size and
character vary with the locality. The commonest
colour is grey, chestnut follows, and then come
bay and sorrel. Stallions are selected animals,
especially in North Mongolia, but the mares are
not, and no special pains are taken anywhere to
improve a breed. Along the China border the
ponies are undersized, 12 to 13 hands, the result
of the excessive demands of the China markets
for all the larger beasts. As one travels northward,
and the China market becomes more remote, the
horse-flesh improves (12 to 14 hands), and the
best specimens of the Mongol pony are found
in the valley of the Kerulon."
Mongolian ponies (pi. x. fig. 2) are brought down
to China in large droves for racing and polo purposes ;
1 Report to Parliament on a Journey to Mongolia, London,
1904, p. 35.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 109
the majority going direct to Shanghai, although some
are sold en route at Pekin> and Tientsin. Accord-
ing to a writer in the Field newspaper of April 8th,
1911, "they are sold principally to the large race-
owners for comparatively big prices, and are kept
and trained for the races. As these ponies have
to be bought without any trial entirely on their
looks, with shaggy coats and totally unacquainted
with the proper use of a brush, many are soon
found to be hardly fast enough for racing purposes.
Sometimes, however, the weirdest-looking proves
himself to be very fast, while some of the good-
looking ones turn out badly."
The aforesaid variability in the colour of Mon-
golian ponies, and the comparative rarity of dun,
seem to indicate that they are not pure derivatives
from the tarpan ; the same thing being, perhaps,
indicated by the luxuriant hair of the mane and
tail. According to Professor Ridge way1 such colour-
differences are known to have been in existence
so early as the second century B.C. The mare
represented in plate viii. fig. i is one of the
dark types of Mongolian ponies. Although
most of the so-called Chinese ponies are really
Mongolian, the southern provinces of China do
produce a native breed of pony, which appears to
be nearly allied to those of Anam, Siam, and
Burma (mentioned below), but is very small,
1 The Thoroughbred H or se> p. 132.
no THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
scarcely reaching an average height of 12.1. These
ponies are, however, very strong and hardy.
It may be added that the nomad Mongols
devote great attention to breeding ponies, of which
they possess an immense number, although many
of them are spoilt by having their hoofs and teeth
abnormally worn down by the stony nature of
the ground and the hard herbage on which they
feed.
Ponies more or less nearly related to the Mon-
golian are to be found throughout the vast tracts
of Central Asia lying between Siberia and the
Himalaya, since, in the opinion of Captain Hayes,1
the ponies of Bhutan, Nepal, Spiti, and Yarkand
are of the same general type ; Yarkandis being
not infrequently dun. The ponies of Corea, as
already mentioned, are closely allied to those of
Mongolia, and come equally close in general
characters to the wild tarpan.
Here it may be well to mention that there
is no near resemblance between Mongolian ponies
and the eel-backed dun horses of Norway, such
as might be supposed to occur in breeds derived
from the same ancestral stock. A moment's reflec-
tion will, however, show that in this particular case
no such resemblance is to be expected ; for if the
wild horse was domesticated in regions so far apart
from one another as Mongolia and Norway, it
1 The Points of the Horse, London, 3rd ed., p. 599.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS in
is only reasonable to presume that differences in
climatic conditions and in the mode of treatment
and selection, coupled in all probability by an
admixture of different kinds of alien blood, would
produce a marked difference between the eastern
and western domesticated stock.
Reverting to the Far East, it is important to
observe that, as was long ago pointed out by Darwin,
in most of the countries lying to the eastward of
the Bay of Bengal, including Burma, Anam, Siam,
the Malay Peninsula and Islands, the Liu Kiu
Islands, and a large portion of China, the horse
is represented only by small breeds which come
under the designation of ponies. Among these,
the Burmese or Shan ponies, which are mainly,
if not exclusively, bred by the hill-tribes of the
Shan States, in the interior of the country, are
believed to be nearly related to the Mongolian
breed, although probably modified by the infusion
of foreign blood. In stature they are about the
equals of the Mongolian, and are strong and active,
although somewhat slow in their movements. On
the other hand, the still smaller but closely allied
Manipur ponies are much faster, and are used
by their owners for polo, of which game Manipur
is one of the original homes.
Near akin to the Manipuris are the Batak or
Deli ponies of Sumatra, which are bred in the
Batak hills of that island, and are exported to
H2 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Singapore from the port of Deli in large numbers.
With their handsome, high-bred-looking heads, and
high-crested necks, they differ, however, markedly
from the Mongolian and Yarkandi types, which
are often more or less decidedly ewe-necked ; this
difference being due to a strong infusion of
Arab blood. In stature they average only about
11.3 hands, although some reach 12.1 or 12.2.
Although most are brown, skewbalds are by no
means uncommon. Sumatra also possesses a second
breed of ponies, which take their name from the
Gayoe hills, at the northern end of the island.
According to Captain Hayes,1 they are stouter
in build than the Batak ponies, with shorter and
thicker legs and heavier hind-quarters. They lack,
however, the speed and fiery nature of the latter ;
this being probably due to their having a smaller
strain of Arab blood in their veins.
On the other hand, the ponies of Java and
some of the neighbouring islands, which, like those
of Sumatra, not infrequently show distinct striping,
appear to be, not only of very modern origin, but.
mainly of Arab descent, although it is quite probable
that they may have some Mongolian blood. I am
credited 2 with the statement that some Javanese
and Sulu ponies show a large first upper premolar,
or wolf-tooth, and as the same feature characterises
the extinct Indian Equus sivalensis, the suggestion
1 Op. dt., p. 633. 2 Ridgeway, op. «/., p. 142.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 113
was thrown out that the former might be the
direct descendants of the latter. Although I no
longer maintain such a view, it may contain a
certain element of truth, since Arabs, as mentioned
later, may perhaps trace their origin to the aforesaid
Equus sivalensis.
Before leaving this part of the subject it is impor-
tant to observe that the Burmese and Malay countries
have derived their ponies from Mongolian or Arab
stocks, and had no indigenous breeds of their own.
The tarpan has also had a share in the production
of the Turkoman horses of Turkestan, which un-
doubtedly have been produced by crossing Mongolian
ponies with Arabs. In fact, the Turkoman horse
passes insensibly through the Persian into the
Arab. A very similar pedigree may be assigned
to the well-known dun-coloured ponies of the
Kathiawar district of North-western India, which
frequently show transverse dark barrings on the
legs, accompanied in some cases by traces of
shoulder-stripes, and always by a narrow dark spinal
stripe. The limbs are long and slender, and the
ears large, with a decided tendency to turn inwards
at the tips. In the opinion of Professor Ridge way,1
" There can be no doubt that the Kathiawar horse
is a cross between the dun-coloured horse of Upper
Asia and the Arab ; " there being historical evi-
dence to show that so early as the commencement
1 op. «v.,p. 159.
H
ii4 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
of the Christian era large numbers of the dun
horses of Northern Asia and Europe had been
imported into the districts on the east side of the
lower part of the Indus valley. The striping in the
Kathiawar ponies, which is most marked in the best
examples of the breed, appears to be a reversion
to the ancestral type, as the result of crossing.
The foregoing does not, however, by any means
exhaust the extent of the influence of the tarpan on
the domesticated horses of Eastern Central Asia,
for Tibet is the home of a breed of ponies many of
which are cream-fawn, or yellow dun, in colour.
Many of these dun ponies, according to Mr. L. A.
Waddell,1 are brindled, and in one particular indi-
vidual a dorsal stripe, the tips of the ears, and
stripes on the shoulders, flanks, and limbs were
black, while there were dapplings on the haunches,
as in many of the Mongolian ponies. More remark-
able still are the so-called tanghans of Tibet, which
are of larger size, and stated to derive their name
from the Tanghastan district of Bhutan. They may
be either piebald, or skewbald, with or without
stripes, and, according to Colonel Hamilton Smith,
the chestnuts on the hind-legs are extremely small.
Some of the older travellers state that droves of
tanghans were to be found in a wild condition on
the Tibetan side of the Himalaya ; but, in one
instance, at any rate, there appears to be a confusion
1 Among the Himalayas^ p. 248.
WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 115
between horses and kiangs, and in any case, if
tanghans were found wild, they must have escaped
from captivity. As regards their origin, Professor
Ridgeway1 states that "on the whole the balance
of probability is in favour of the piebald colour of
the tanghans 2 of Tibet being due to the crossing of
the Mongolian and Arab stocks, as seems certainly
the case with the piebalds of Sumatra."
The ponies of the Mongolian type which formed
the ancestral stock of the modern Kathiawaris were
probably brought into Western India by the ancient
Scythians from the neighbourhood of the Caspian ;
and as these warriors also invaded Baluchistan and
Afghanistan — the ancient Bactria — there is little
doubt that the horses of these countries have a
strong Mongolian element in their blood, although
some of this may have been derived from the dis-
tricts lying immediately to the north. On this point
Captain Hayes3 remarks that the Cabuli, Baluchi,
and other trans- Indus horses so largely used in India,
which, although stouter and shorter in the legs, are
less smart in appearance and less suited to a hot
climate than the so-called " country-breds," may
be considered as intermediate between the latter
and Mongolian ponies ; this being, in fact, equi-
valent to saying that they are of mixed Arab and
1 Origin of the Thoroughbred Horse, p. 156.
2 I have ventured to alter Professor Ridgeway's spelling,
" tangums," to accord with that adopted here.
3 Points of the Horse, 3rd ed. p. 603.
u6 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Mongolian blood. Stripes, it is said, are not infre-
quent on the legs of horses in the Waziri districts of
Afghanistan, as they certainly are on those of many
of the ponies in the Punjab.
When the origin of Punjabi and other Indian
ponies is considered, we are, however, at once con-
fronted by great difficulties. For during the Pleis-
tocene period the Narbada district of Central India,
and doubtless other parts of the country, were the
home of a wild horse (Equus namadicus) with long
grinding surfaces to the anterior pillars of the upper
cheek-teeth. And this horse — if indeed it is entitled
to that name in the more restricted sense — may
quite probably have had a share in the origin of
the Indian country-bred and pony stock previous to
the introduction of Arab and Mongolian blood.
On the other hand, there is no proof that the
extinct Narbada horse was not nearer to the onager
than to the typical horse.
In concluding this chapter reference may be
made to the diet of Asiatic horses. In the work
quoted on page 69 Colonel Phillott observes that : —
" Indian country-breds will eat and thrive on food
that would probably kill English horses. In the
Persian Gulf and elsewhere locusts, fish, and dates
are regarded as legitimate food for horses and
cattle ; in Tibet the tanghans are given pig's blood
and raw liver ; and in the cold regions of Central
Asia meat is regarded as a necessity for horses."
CHAPTER III
HORSES AND PONIES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS
WHEN Julius Caesar invaded Britain in the year
55 B.C. he found the natives in possession of swift
and hardy horses, which they drove in their war-
chariots with remarkable skill and adroitness.
Although it has been stated that the horse is not
indigenous to the British Islands,1 and the sugges-
tion made that the original stock was introduced
by the Phoenicians when they visited Cornwall for
the purpose of obtaining tin, there seems no reason
why the horses of the early Britains should not
have been derived from the native Prehistoric
breeds. The available evidence points to the con-
clusion that these early British horses were of
small size, so that at the present day they would
come under the denomination of ponies ; this being
another fact in favour of their descent from the
small Prehistoric horse allied to the tarpan. In
the opinion of Sir Walter Gilbey,2 it is doubtful
whether the horses of Britain gained materially
in size till the Saxons and Danes imported stallions
belonging to larger breeds from the Continent.
1 Sir Walter Gilbey, Thoroughbred and other Ponies, London,
1903, p. 21, * Op. tit., p. 22.
n8 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
At the time when Domesday Book was written
large droves of mares wandered at will through
the forests of the great land-owners of England,
and were only driven into enclosures occasionally
when some of their number were selected for work-
ing purposes, and doubtless also for breeding.
And it is probable that from these forest mares
(the Equce silvestres or Equce indomita of Domesday
Book) were produced the first improved types of
British horses. From the unimproved forest breeds
are doubtless descended the modern forest and
moorland breeds of ponies; which, it has been
suggested, have somewhat degenerated in size and
quality owing to the poor fodder of the comparatively
restricted areas on which they now survive.
The first of these ponies for notice are those of
the New Forest, in Hampshire (pi. xi. fig. i), which it
has been suggested are descended from a stock found
before the time of Knut (1017-1035) in the district
formerly known as Ytene and afforested in the
year 1072 by William the Conqueror.1 They are
described by Low as ugly, large-headed, and short-
necked, but hardy, sure-footed, and capable of
bearing rough usage. In 1765, the breed was
much improved by " Marske," the sire of " Eclipse,"
having been allowed to run with the herds for about
four years. In 1889 the Forest ponies were again
improved by thoroughbred blood ; and about the
1 Gilbey, op. at., p. 32.
PLATE XI
FIG. i
FIG. 2
FIG. i. New Forest Ponies.
FIG. 2. Shetland Ponies.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 119
same time stallions from the island of Rum, off
the west coast of Scotland, were introduced. These
black Galloways, as they are called, greatly improved
the stock, which is now in demand as polo-ponies.
Near akin to the New Forest breed are the ponies
of Exmoor and Dartmoor, the former of which
should average 12 and not exceed 13 hands in
height, while stallions of the latter may run to
14 hands. In winter these ponies, which are left
nearly wild until caught for use, are thickly covered
with long hair. Exmoors are generally dark bay
or brown in colour, with black points ; they have
broad foreheads, sharp ears, well-formed shoulders,
and short, sturdy legs.
From the larger types of these ponies were bred
the old pack-horses of the west of England, which
were indispensable in former days to the farmers
of the district, and were also largely used for riding.
Of late years Exmoor ponies have been crossed
with Dongola Arabs, and this, and perhaps earlier
crossings, may account for the Arab-like character
they now frequently possess.
Welsh ponies, which are not confined to the
principality, but range over the wilder parts of the
adjacent counties of Salop, Hereford, and Mon-
mouth, are more numerous than any other breed,
and are a very ancient type. Early in the eighteenth
century a famous thoroughbred stallion was turned
out among the Welsh droves, so that in this case
120 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
also the modern breed has a tinge of Arab blood.
According to the modern standard, North Welsh
ponies should not exceed \2\ hands, but those of
South Wales are allowed to measure 1 3 hands.
The ponies of the Lake District (Cumberland
and Westmorland) run larger, so that many of them
are entitled to be called Galloways. According
to Sir Walter Gilbey they possess no features en-
titling them to be regarded as a distinct breed, and
they do not therefore demand further notice in this
volume.
Of much greater interest are the Connemara
ponies of the west of Ireland, which inhabit the
mountains of the Connemara district of Galway.
It has been very generally asserted that these ponies
were derived from horses saved from the wreck of
the Spanish Armada in 1588. This, however, Sir
Walter Gilbey l considers to be probably erroneous,
and, in his opinion, the characteristics of the Conne-
mara pony of the present day are due to the impor-
tation of Spanish, i.e. Barb, horses from England
during the period extending from the fourteenth to
the seventeenth century. Low, in his Domesti-
cated Animals of the British Islands, states that
Connemara ponies "are from 12 to 14 hands high,
generally of the prevailing colour of the Andalucian
horses, delicate in their limbs, and possessed of
the form of head characteristic of the Spanish
1 op. tit., p. 86.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 121
race. . . . They are hardy, active, surefooted in a
remarkable degree, and retain the peculiar amble
of the Spanish jenet."
The existence of a large amount of Barb blood
in Connemara ponies is admitted by Professor
Ridgeway,1 who gives reasons for believing that
the ponies of Iceland, the Hebrides, and the Faroes
were derived from Ireland, subsequently to the
infusion of Barb blood into the latter country.
Now, as mentioned in the last chapter, the ponies
of Iceland, Finland, the Faroes, Shetland, Hebrides,
Connemara, Wales, and parts of England are
regarded by Professor Ewart as indicating a special
type for which the name Equus caballus celticus
was proposed in I9O3-2 These ponies, of which the
Iceland breed appears to be regarded as the typical
representative, are collectively characterised, when
pure bred, by the following features : — The height
is about 12 hands, and the general colour very
similar to that of the Mongolian tarpan. The head
is small and delicately formed, the legs and hoofs
are fine, and the hind chestnuts are lacking, as are
also the ergots on all four fetlocks. The coat in
winter is long and thick, the mane and forelock
are properly developed, and the tail is luxuriant,
with short hairs at the side of the base, which form
a pad to protect the inside of the buttocks, and are
1 The Thoroughbred Horse, pp. 419, 420.
2 Vide supra, p. 101.
122 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
shed annually. The mane is darker externally
than internally, and the tail is not wholly black.
Some Shetland ponies conform to this type, but
others are more sturdily built, with little or no
tail-pad, and the ergots and hind chestnuts de-
veloped ; and much the same may be said of the
Connemara ponies.
As mentioned in the preceding chapter, Pro-
fessor Ewart now regards the Celtic pony and the
Barb (inclusive of the Arab) as divergent branches
of a single primitive European stock.
To the Celtic type Dr. L. Stejneger1 refers
the fjord-hest of Western Norway, which he regards
as distinct from the doele-hest, or "valley-horse," of
the interior,2 and as having been probably intro-
duced into the country from Scotland. In his
opinion the Celtic pony of Connemara and the
Scottish Islands, the West Norwegian fjord-hest,
and the now extinct Russian tarpan, all belong to
the same stock. And he cites the evidence of a
Russian naturalist, Professor Tscherski, who states
that the hind chestnuts were frequently absent in
the Russian tarpan ; he himself adding that the
latter resembled the Celtic pony in size and colour,
and what is equally to the point, that its skull
1 Naturen^ Bergen, 1904, p. 161, and Smithsonian MiscelL Collec-
tions•, vol. xlviii. p. 467, 1907.
8 It is uncertain to which type belongs the horse shown in pi. x.
fig. I.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 123
agrees essentially in relative proportions with that
of the Iceland pony.
Assuming Dr. Stejneger's opinions to be trust-
worthy, it follows, in view of the near affinity of
the Russian tarpan to its truly wild Mongolian
namesake to which reference has been made in
the preceding chapter, that if the Celtic pony and
the Barb are divergent branches of a common
ancestral stock, the Arab is first cousin to the
Mongolian tarpan — a relationship which few will
be disposed to admit.
But there is another way of looking at the
matter, namely, that if we accept the evidence as
to the infusion of Barb blood into the Connemara
ponies, and also that the latter formed the source
of the ponies of Iceland, the Hebrides, &c., the
Celtic pony may apparently have derived its Arab
characteristics from the same original infusion into
an ancestral stock akin to the Prehistoric horses
of La Madelaine and to the modern Mongolian
tarpan.
The case has been put very concisely by Dr.
R. F. Sharff1 in a paper on horse-skulls from
Ireland, in which it is remarked that " the principal
point of difference seems to me whether the Arab
or Libyan features, as Professor Ridgeway would
call them, in the Irish [i.e. Celtic] horse are the
result of introductions by mankind of Eastern
1 Proc. R. Irish Academy, Dublin, vol. xxvii, ser. B, p. 85, 1909.
i24 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
or Spanish blood, or whether these features were
inherited from a wild ancestor. I believe that
the latter was the case."
Others may, however, be permitted to hold
the opposite opinion ; and it is significant that
Professor Ridgeway l has experienced the difficulty
of accepting Professor E wart's view, and attempted
to get over it by suggesting a dual origin for
the Celtic pony. That the latter is a recognisable
type may be accepted independently of the views
taken as to its ancestry and relationship. In
connection with the latter point, the reader may
be reminded that Dr. Duerst, as stated on page 97,
derives the Celtic pony from his "forest-type"
(Equus caballus nehringi\ in which there appear
to be no indications of Arab affinity. Reference
may also be again made to the assertion (p. 103)
that some Connemara ponies are very like the
Mongolian tarpan ; and it may be added that the
short hairs on the sides of the base of the tail
in the Celtic type may be another indication of
relationship to the true tarpan, in which the whole
of this region is short-haired.
Leaving theoretical matters, and resuming the
consideration of the leading breeds of the British
Isles, other than thoroughbreds, attention may be
directed to the special features of the Shetland
pony (pi. xi. fig. 2), which is the smallest of all.
1 The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 421.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 125
How and when these ponies, or rather the ancestral
stock from which they are derived, reached the
Shetlands is unknown, although some writers have
suggested a Scandinavian and others a Scottish
origin. From the circumstance that the " Bressay
Stone," discovered at Bressay in 1864, includes
among other designs the figure of a man on horse-
back, it has been inferred that ponies were found
in Shetland previous to the extermination of Celtic
Christianity by the Norwegian invasion of 872,*
but the value of this evidence seems doubtful.
The general characteristics of " Shelties " have
been already indicated when discussing the so-called
Celtic pony. The average height is about 10 hands,
ioj hands being the maximum show-standard ; but
many do not exceed 9 hands. As regards colour,
bay, brown, and dull black are the most prevalent
shades, but these may be mingled with white,
and in rare instances the whole coat may be white.
Although in winter the coat is long, close, and
shaggy, in summer the hair is quite short and
sleek. It is stated that Shetland mares frequently
have tusks as long as those of the stallions. As
already mentioned, some Shelties are cart-horse-like
in make, while others are of a more slender and
Arab-like type. The frequent presence of black
in the colouring is considered to be indicative of
Norwegian, and thus of Barb blood.
1 Gilbey, op. cit., p. 103.
126 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
The ponies of Orkney are stated to be of a
more mixed type, as well as larger in size and
coarser in shape than those of Shetland. The
Hebrides are also the home of numerous ponies ;
those of the Outer Hebrides being small, round-
shouldered, and muscular, with thick and rough
winter coats, while those of the Inner Hebrides
are usually larger ; Mull, Barra, I slay, Tiree, Skye,
and Uist being the islands most noted for the good
qualities of their ponies. Mr. Munro Mackenzie1
states that the small ponies of Barra and the outer
islands stand from 12 J to 13! hands, and, although
having rather large and heavy heads and straight
shoulders, are hardy, serviceable animals. The
ponies of Mull, Tiree, Skye, and Uist, as well as
some parts of the west coast of the Scottish main-
land, are a larger type, running from 13 J to 14!
hands in height ; but are now very scarce. They
are mostly blackish brown in colour, but some are
brown, bay, or dun, others cream-colour, and a few
grey. In this case tradition tells of infusion of Barb
blood from horses saved from the wreck of the
Spanish Armada ; while other reports refer to the
introduction of discarded Arab chargers by military
officers. Certain it is that Arab characters are
prevalent among them ; and curiously enough, in
the duns as well as in those of other colours.
Whatever may have been the source of this Arab
1 Polo Pony Society's Stud Book, vol. vii.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 127
or Barb strain, all breeders and experts agree in
attributing it to an introduced stock, and not to a
primitive " Celtic " type.
A larger type met with in the Highlands of
Scotland is known as the garron, and is specially
characteristic of Perthshire and the central
Highlands. Horses of this breed may stand as
much as 15 hands at the shoulder; in colour they
range from black and brown to dun and grey, bay
being rare. In the opinion of Mr. Mackenzie they
are probably the offspring of ponies crossed with
larger horses brought from the south during military
expeditions.
Intermediate between ponies and horses are the
Galloways, so called from the district of Galloway,
in the south of Scotland. Up to the end of the
eighteenth century Galloways were generally under
14 hands, and were used alike for the transport of
agricultural produce and for riding ; but after that
date they were crossed with larger horses till they
practically disappeared from the mainland, to survive
only in remote islands like those of Mull and Rum.
The general colour was bright bay or brown with
black points ; but the Galloways of Rum, all of which
were purchased in 1888 by Lord Arthur Cecil for
the improvement of the New Forest breed, were
black with hazel eyes. In all Galloways the head
is small.
The Welsh cob appears to be an allied breed.
128 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Since the present work purports to be an
account of the natural history of the horse and not
a treatise on horse-breeding, such groups as polo-
ponies, hackneys (from the French haquenee), and
hunters may be passed over without notice, since
they constitute groups formed by selection from other
breeds, rather than distinct breeds by themselves.
Attention may accordingly be directed to the leading
British types of horse employed for carriage and
heavy draught. Among these, the first place may
be assigned to the Cleveland bay, a magnificent
stamp of powerful carriage-horses taking their
name from the fertile district of Cleveland in the
North Riding of Yorkshire, on the Tees, but now
also largely bred in the East Riding, as well as in
Durham and Northumberland. The name is, how-
ever, a modern one, the original local breed having
been known as the chapman or pack-horse. How
it originated is not definitely ascertained, although
it was not improbably produced by the infusion of
foreign blood into the native stock of the district.
The colour of the Cleveland is bay with black
points ; and the height ranges from i6J to i6|
hands. Heaviness of "bone" is one of the char-
acteristics of the breed.
Near akin to the Cleveland bay is the York-
shire coach-horse, which tends to be smaller in size,
with what breeders term more quality ; the latter
being due to thoroughbred blood.
PLATE XII
FIG. i
FIG. 2
FIG. i. A Suffolk Stallion.
FIG. 2. A Shire Stallion.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 129
Of late years the tendency has been to render
the Cleveland bay and the Yorkshire coach-horse
lighter in make than formerly ; and in consequence
of this it is difficult to find a sufficient number of
horses of the type required for use in the royal
stables of this country, so that the stud of carriage-
horses has to be recruited from foreign sources.
In this place it may be mentioned that the
famous cream-coloured horses kept in the royal
stables for use in processions of full state are a
Hanoverian breed. Although frequently referred
to as the ''cream ponies," they are in reality horses
of large size and great muscular power, the biggest
standing fully 16 hands, and the smaller ones an
inch or two less. The black Drenthe horses em-
ployed at royal funerals are another Hanoverian
breed, mainly reared near Osnabruck.
Of the heavy draught horses of Great Britain
one of the most famous is the Suffolk (pi. xii. fig. i ),
frequently known, in allusion to its compact and
"punchy" build, as the Suffolk punch, whose range
extends from its native county into Norfolk and
Essex. The original breed was noted for its hardi-
ness and the capacity for exerting its utmost strength
at a dead pull. A true Suffolk punch, it is written,
would draw almost till he dropped ; and a team at
a given signal would, without a whip, bend in a
moment to their knees, and drag everything along.
When Low wrote his Domesticated Animals of
i
130 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the British Islands the colour of the Suffolk was
light dun or sorrel, sometimes deepening into chest-
nut, with a lighter mane and tail. The general
shape was plain, with the head large, the neck short
and arched, the shoulders low and heavy, the back
straight, the haunches well developed, the loins
wide, and the limbs short.
Low observed that " the colour distinctive of
this variety connects it with the race widely diffused
throughout the North of Europe and Asia, from the
Scandinavian Alps to the plains of Tatary, in which
the dun colour prevails. It is believed to have been
carried to the eastern counties of England from
Normandy, which yet possesses many fine horses of
this breed, introduced, it may be believed, by the
Scandinavian invaders."
Although there is no definite proof of such a
Scandinavian origin, it is quite probable that it may
contain an element of truth.
In the latter part of the eighteenth and during the
nineteenth century the Suffolk horse was modified
by crossing — notably with the Lincolnshire trot-
ting horse ; and nowadays the colour is generally
either light or dark chestnut. From 16 to i6|-
hands is the more general height, although some
horses reach 17 hands. As the Suffolk is essenti-
ally a farm breed, and not intended for heavy work
in cities, the weight should be less than in Clydes-
dales and shires.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 131
North of the Tweed the most famous breed of
heavy cart-horse is the Clydesdale, so called from
the district watered by the Clyde in its course
through the county of Lanark. The breed appears
to be of somewhat mixed origin, Scotch drovers
who took cattle to England in the early part of the
eighteenth century returning with horses which
were used for the improvement of the native stock.
What these horses were is, of course, unknown ;
but it is certain that about the year 1715 a farmer
introduced into Clydesdale a black Flemish stallion
from England which formed the foundation of the
modern breed. The mares descended from this
stallion were generally brown or black, with the
face white, some white on the legs, and a white
patch on the belly ; grey occurring abundantly in
the tail, and occasionally on the body. Clydesdales
are reared in Renfrew, Ayr, and Dumfries, although
to the largest extent in their native Lanarkshire.
The average height of the Clydesdale is about
1 6^ hands for stallions and an inch or so less
for mares. Breeders lay stress on the form of the
feet, which should be large, round, and open, with
abundance of "bone," and a free action. White
feet, although common, are regarded as objection-
able. A "dished" face, small ears, and a "pony"
head are regarded as indicative of a strain of
Galloway or garron blood ; while, on the other
hand, a narrow face and Roman nose point as
132 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
clearly to a shire cross. The feet should have
long hair behind. As regards colour, bay or brown,
with a blaze on the forehead, and the whole or
part of the legs below the knees and hocks white,
is the most prized ; but black, grey, or chestnut
occasionally occurs, the last of these being regarded
as indicative of a shire cross.
The history of one of the most famous of the
English heavy breeds, namely, the shire, or great,
horse, has been fully worked out by Sir Walter
Gilbey.1 This breed (pi. xii. fig. 2) was probably
derived from the chariot-horses of the Britons
of Caesar's time, and by the time of King John
(1199-1216) had become the recognised English
war-horse. With the increasing weight of armour,
a heavier and larger type of horse became essential ;
and accordingly breeders directed their attention
to the production of such a type. During the
Wars of the Roses (1450-1471) large numbers
of great horses were exported, in order to escape
being seized for military purposes ; but in the
reign of Henry VII. (1485-1509) an Act was
passed prohibiting the exportation of these and
all other horses. In the succeeding reign — Henry
VIII. — not only was this prohibition continued, but
statutes were made for encouraging and improving
the breed of shire horses. At this date the weight
a charger had to carry (inclusive of his own armour)
1 The Great Horse^ or Shire Horse, 2nd ed. London, 1899.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 133
was about 425 Ibs., so that it is manifest a horse
of great size and power was necessary. By Queen
Elizabeth's time (1558-1603) the exclusive re-
striction of the great horse to military purposes was
broken down, and these animals were in general
use for farm and draught work. At this period
it would seem that the colour of the great horse
might range from black and bay to white. Accord-
ing to Sir Walter Hungerford, who lived during
the reign of Queen Mary, the British breed was
at that time improved by the introduction of High
Almaine (German), Flemish or Friesland, and,
more rarely, Neapolitan, stallions. In the reign
of James I. the great horse was still in use as
a war-horse, as is proved by Vandyke's picture of
the Duke of Arenburg, in the Earl of Leicester's
collection at Holkam Hall ; and in spite of the
introduction of lighter horses in succeeding reigns
and during the Commonwealth, this usage continued
till 1658, when a book was written by the Duke
of Newcastle on the training and grooming of great
horses for war purposes. By the latter half of
the seventeenth century armour fell, however, into
disuse, and the great horse, no longer required
for war, or indeed for the saddle at all, took its
place as an animal of draught, and eventually
acquired the name of shire horse. It may be
from the strain of North German and Flemish blood
in the English great horse of best quality, that
134 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
in the time of Paul Potter, who painted a portrait
of a grey dappled stallion of the breed in 1652,
the British and Continental representatives of
the breed were practically identical. The frequent
presence of black and grey at this period is
indicative of Arab or Barb blood.
The name shire horse seems to have been in
use by about the end of the eighteenth century, for
we find Arthur Young, in the description of a tour
through England and Scotland, referring to two
breeds of cart-horse as deserving of attention,
namely the large old English black horse, " the
produce principally of the shire counties in the
heart of England, and the sorrel-coloured Suffolk
punch, for which the sandy tract of country near
Woodbridge is famous."
During the last century, writes Sir Walter
Gilbey, " the shire horse has played no mean part
in building up size and massiveness in all the other
draught-breeds in the kingdom. That he has
undergone great changes is certain ; but the
characteristics of the breed — size, strength, substance,
courage, and docility — have been perpetuated and
developed by careful selection till we have now in
our shire horse the ideal beast of draught."
All the best characteristics of the breed were
displayed by " Blythwood Conqueror," a famous
stallion foaled in 1893, whose colour was bay, with
a blaze on the forehead and all four feet white.
HORSES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS 135
These white markings are, indeed, very distinctive
of the breed, which is further characterised by the
relatively small size of the head, the short and
heavy neck, thick and powerful shoulders, rounded
and deep body, short and broad loins, massive
hind-quarters, and enormously strong limbs, of
which the lower portions are short and compressed,
with an abundance of long hair on the fetlocks, the
hoofs large and rounded, the frog well developed,
and the lower surface of the hoof moderately arched.
Nowadays grey is much less common in this breed
than formerly ; the same being the case among
thoroughbreds.
With such a build and size, shire horses are of
course capable of performing extraordinary feats of
power ; and they have the further advantage of
possessing a very docile and tractable disposition,
which, under careful training, renders them ex-
tremely intelligent. Examples of this docility and
intelligence are displayed by shires employed for
hauling and shunting trucks on British railways.
The skull of a shire stallion is shown in plate iv.
fig. i, and a cannon-bone in plate i. fig. i.
CHAPTER IV
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS
ONE of the most ancient and therefore one of the
most interesting breeds on the Continent is the
Schlettstadt horse, or pony, which has been
described by Dr. Max Hilzheimer in an article
entitled " Das Vosgesenrind und das Schlettstadter
Pferd," published in the Mitteilungen der Philomat-
ischen Gesellschaft in Elsass-Lothringen for 1906,
vol. iii. pp. 368-380. This horse is to be met with
in the neighbourhood of Schlettstadt, in upper
Alsace, where it is locally known as Riedpferd
(reed-horse) or Pickerle. Small in stature, and
of all colours except grey, it frequently shows a
dark dorsal stripe, while in one foal the last remnant
of a transverse shoulder-stripe was observed, such
a vestige being sometimes noticeable in the wild
Mongolian tarpan. In its large and clumsy head,
with a broad forehead, and a tendency to a con-
cavity in the profile near the base of the nasal bones,
the Schlettstadt horse likewise approaches the wild
race, as it also does in its short ears and low
withers. On the other hand, in its profuse mane
and tail it makes an equally wide departure from
136
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS 137
the latter, although there is every probability that
these features are the result of domestication.
Dr. Hilzheimer is of opinion that this breed is
the descendant of the wild horses — whether abo-
riginally so or reverted to a wild condition from
domestication, is more or less immaterial — described
by Elisaeus Rosslin as having inhabited the Vosges
at the end of the sixteenth century, and to which
reference is made in an earlier chapter.1 Moreover,
he considers the Schlettstadt breed as nearly related
to the horse of the Prehistoric Swiss lake-dwellings,
or Pfahlbauten ; and that the latter, to which some
writers have attributed an Eastern origin, was
itself the offspring of the still earlier wild horses of
the cave-epoch, such as the one represented in
plate vii. fig. 2.
On the other hand, it is suggested that the
heavy so-called Eastern horse was not originally
tamed to the west of the Alps or in the north of
Europe, but that its ancestral home may have been
in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea, whence it
was carried by the Romans to Central and Western
Europe.
According to Dr. Conrad Keller,2 another
ancient breed is to be found in the island of
Majorca, in the Balearic group. These horses,
which are most abundant in the Palma district, differ
1 Supra, p. 74.
2 " Studien iiber die Haustiere der Mittelmeer-Inseln," Neue
Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturfor. Gesellschaft, vol. xlvi. pp. 107-187, 1911.
138 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
markedly from all other breeds. Specially char-
acterised by their slender limbs and free, graceful
carriage, they vary in colour from dark to light
brown, and have short, thick, and arched necks,
with thick, upright manes, which are often clipped.
The delicate head, with backwardly directed
ears, is distinctly Roman-nosed, and when the
animal is galloping, is carried sharply bent against
the short neck. In this respect the Majorca breed
differs markedly from Algerian and Andalucian
horses, which carry their heads stretched out
straight, nearly in the line of the neck. Dr. Keller
compares the Majorca horses to those depicted on
ancient vases and Greek coins, and believes the
former to be the survivor of the ancient type.
This identification, if trustworthy, is of great
interest, as it serves to indicate that the hog-manes
of the early Grecian horses, like those sculptured
on the frieze of the Parthenon,1 were natural,
although, as in the case of the Majorca breed, im-
proved by trimming. This seems to be indicative
of the affinity of both breeds to the wild tarpan ;
and affords further evidence that the falling manes
of modern horses (other than the Arab) are due to
domestication.
Of the heavy horses of France, perhaps the
most famous is the Percheron breed (pi. xiii. fig. i),
1 See the cut on p. 297 of Ridgeway's Origin of the Thoroughbred
Horse.
PLATE XIII
FIG. i
FIG. 2
FIG. i. A Percheron Stallion.
FIG. 2. A Belgian Stallions
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS 139
which takes its name from the district of Le Perche,
in the south-east of Normandy. Although its origin
is unknown, the Percheron is an ancient type ; and
it appears to have been largely crossed with Arab
and Barb blood during the Saracen invasion in the
early decades of the eighth century. In 1755 the
breed was crossed with Danish horses, and sub-
sequently English and Belgian stock was introduced,
while in 1820 other foreign blood was infused by
means of two grey Arab stallions, which no doubt
had a considerable share in inducing the grey colour
now prevalent in the Percheron. This modern
breed forms an ideal type of draught-horse, the
height being relatively low (from 15^ to 17 hands
in stallions, and the maximum half a hand less in
mares), and the body compact and rounded, with a
full chest and broad back. The rump is, however,
short, and the tail set low — a feature showing little
indication in this respect of the Arab cross — and
there is also a lack of depth and fulness in the
barrel. The shapely legs and feet, devoid of large
hair on the pasterns, are very characteristic, and
the cause of the free action in walking and trotting.
In fact, next to the Clydesdale, the Percheron
h:is the best action of all draught-horses. The
colour is usually grey or black, although browns
and bays are not unknown. The breed has been
introduced into America, where it has become
very popular.
140 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
The Boulonnais breed, from the Boulogne
district and the adjacent parts of Belgium, is a
rather larger and coarser type than the Percheron,
the neck being especially heavy, the rump steeper
and more squared, and the colour frequently grey
or white. The action is less free than in the
Percheron. In Brittany the size of the draught-
horses runs smaller, the normal height of the Breton
breed being only from 14 to 15!- hands. Like the
Percheron, to which they are allied, these horses
are often grey, although bay is more common than
among the former. They have been largely crossed
with other breeds.
Of less importance is the Nivernais, of the
department of Nievre, in Central France, which
is now mainly a black breed produced by crossing
the native stock with Percheron stallions.
Visitors on landing at Antwerp or other Belgian
ports can scarcely fail to be struck with the intelli-
gence, docility, and enormous power of the draught-
horses employed on the quays. These horses
(pi. xiii. fig. 2) belong to the Belgian breed, which is
also used in the country for agricultural work, and
appears to be of great antiquity ; Belgium having
been noted as a horse-breeding country since the
time of Diodorus Siculus, in the first century B.C.
There is a certain amount of local variation in
the height of this breed, the largest being the
Flemish strain, in which it reaches from i6f to
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS 141
17 hands, whereas in the Brabant type it falls to
between 15! and i6f, while in the Ardennais stock,
of the Ardennes, it is only from 15 to 15% hands.
The Picardy horses of France form a fourth modifica-
tion of the present breed. Perhaps the most striking
feature of the Belgian is to be found in the great
fulness of the chest and the depth and breadth
of the back ; the girth of the body being relatively
greater than in any other breed. The shortness
and sharp inclination of the rump are more con-
spicuous than in the Percheron, and constitute a
distinct blemish. Another frequent fault is the lack
of sufficient stoutness of bone in the legs, and the
small and narrow feet, which, as in the Percheron,
are devoid of long hair. The neat head is carried
on a short neck, which is frequently of great depth,
and thereby shows another indication of affinity
with the French breeds. On the other hand,
chestnut is the prevailing colour, bays, bay-browns,
and roans being, however, by no means uncommon,
although greys are rare. Despite its somewhat
slow action, the Belgian, on account of its weight,
enjoys an unusual capacity for moving heavy
loads with the least possible amount of exertion
and strain.
As regards draught-horses of a lighter type,
the rich lowlands drained by the Elbe, Weser, and
Ems in North-western Germany have long been
noted for the excellence of their breeds, among
142 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
which special mention may be made of those
of Hanover, Oldenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and
East Friesland. The original black Hanoverian
appears, however, to have died out some time
subsequent to 1746. Near Osnabruck is kept the
celebrated stud of black Drenthe horses, originally
from Drenthe, in Holland, to which reference is
made on page 129, in the preceding chapter, where
there is also mention of the royal cream-coloured
horses, whose origin is Hanoverian. The name
of German coach-horse is applied to horses of the
above stamp, whose height ranges from 16 to i6J
hands, and whose colour (exclusive of the creams)
is almost invariably bay, brown, or black. The
body is relatively large, with a high rump and well-
set tail, the neck long and arched, the withers high,
the legs relatively long, and the feet of excellent
shape. The horses of Holland and Flanders are
a heavier type of the same strain ; and, as already
mentioned, it is from the big black horses of this
part of the Continent that the English shire draws
many of its present features. Germany possesses
many other breeds ; but as these have been
modified by crossing, they do not come within the
scope of the present survey. Much the same may
be said with regard to Danish horses ; the principal
breeding-ground for these is on the Oldenburg
border. Reference has been previously made
(p. 122) to the dun and other horses of Norway,
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS 143
which are the most characteristic type of that
country.
Hungary has long enjoyed a well-deserved
reputation for its horses ; and it appears that the
old Hungarian horse was usually bay, although
grey, dun, and chestnut were also known. Early
in the nineteenth century this type was, however,
completely changed by the introduction of English
thoroughbreds. On the other hand, it is important
to mention that there is an indigenous Austrian
breed of horses, standing about 14 hands in height,
and in their angular make closely resembling
the ponies of the Russian peasantry. "It seems
certain," writes Professor Ridgeway,1 "that in
these animals we have the descendants of the
ancient ponies of the Danubian region, such as
those driven by the Sigynnae, and their resem-
blance to the country ponies of Russia confirms the
conclusion that we have in them the old European-
Asiatic horses more or less modified by crossing
with superior blood."
Switzerland possesses several breeds of heavy
horses apparently derived from the mediaeval black
war-horses, among which the Laumont breed of
the Bernese Oberland forms an excellent draught-
horse, whereas the black Erlenbuch is of lighter
make.
It would, however, be useless to devote more
1 The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 345.
144 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
space to the horses of Europe (other than thorough-
breds, which are discussed later), since nearly all
of them have been more or less crossed with
foreign blood. Professor Ridgeway, for instance,
points out in one passage1 that "the black horses
of Western Asia, Spain, and Italy all result from
a mixture of the African bay [Barb] with the
indigenous horses of Asia and Europe " ; while in a
second 2 he mentions that " Wurtemberg possessed
a notable breed of horses, the best of which result
from imported Arabs with an admixture in a small
degree of the English thoroughbred and the
Trakehaen " ; and in a third,3 after referring to the
modern origin of the Russian Orlov trotter, he
observes that " there is only one heavy Russian
breed of draught-horses — the Beetewk, called after
the river of that name. . . . In 1712 Peter the
Great was so struck by the good qualities of the
horses of that locality that he imported Dutch
stallions to improve the breed, and later on it was
crossed with the Orlov trotter."
In connection with Russia, it may be mentioned
that the Kalmuks and Kirghiz own half-wild troops
of coarse-bred horses, doubtless derived in great
part from the original tarpan of the steppes, and
much less altered by crossing with alien blood
than the horses of Western Russia. Kalmuk
horses, which are largely used in the Russian
1 Op. cit.y p. 320. a Ibid., p. 344. 3 Ibid.) p. 350.
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS 145
cavalry, are bred in the country lying between the
Volga and the Ural, and stand about 15 hands in
height. Kirghiz horses, on the other hand, are
smaller, seldom exceeding 14^ hands, and are
reared in the steppes to the north-east of the
Caspian.
The horses of Turkey can scarcely be said to
form a distinct breed at the present day, being
derived proximately from the ancient brown stock
of Armenia, which itself originally came from
Northern Asia, by crossing with Arab blood, which
soon gained the predominance. Colonel Hamilton
Smith1 writes that "they have, from the ancient
Turkoman blood, a tendency to Roman-nosed
chaffrons and ewe-necks, but the head is finely
set on ; they are delicate, have very tender and
irritable skins ; but also they are docile, and grace-
ful like gazelles."
Before proceeding to notice some of the modern
Asiatic breeds, other than Arabs, a few lines may
be devoted to the early history of domesticated
horses in the countries at the eastern end of the
Mediterranean. With the exception of a solitary
reference in Isaiah to their employment in threshing
corn, horses are mentioned in the Bible only in
connection with military operations. In Syria and
Palestine they appear to have been unknown before
the time of David ; but at that date they were used
1 Naturalist's Library, Horses, 2nd ed. p. 232.
146 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
both in war-chariots and for riding, the chariot-horse
being termed sds, and the riding-horse/<mw^. On
the Egyptian monuments horses appear for the first
time about 1600 B.C. harnessed to the chariot of
the sun ; and it was not till a much later date
that they were used for riding. Indeed in several
Eastern countries the horse was employed for
driving long previous to its use for riding. We
find, for instance, in Assyria that the bas-reliefs
portraying the conquests of Shalmanesir in Elam
always show the Assyrians fighting in chariots
while their enemies were mounted ; and it is stated
that Sennacherib was the first to put cavalry in
the field. These were mounted archers, each of
whom required to be attended by a running foot-
man, who had his hand on the bridle while the
mounted man discharged his arrows. Later on the
bowman learnt to manage his steed without assist-
ance ; but there is stated to be no instance in the
Assyrian sculptures of the use of the lance or sword
by the cavalry of the period. It may be added
that the heroes of the Iliad are always referred to
as fighting from chariots, no mention being made
of their mounting their horses before going into
action.
As regards the origin of these Eastern horses
of the early historic period, Professor Ridgeway * is
of opinion that those first introduced into Egypt
1 The Thoroughbred Horse^ p. 220.
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS 147
came from the countries lying to the westward
of the upper part of the Nile Valley, and were
therefore of the Barb type. On the other hand,
the horses of Syria and Palestine in Biblical
times, which were of various colours, are considered
to have probably come from Persia or the adjacent
countries ; l the dun-coloured kadishes now found
in the peninsula of Syria and Irak being a later
introduction from Central or Northern Asia, and
akin to the tarpan. The latter origin is likewise
claimed by Professor Ridgeway2 for the horses of
ancient Babylonia (where they appear to have been
introduced about 15006.0.) and Assyria; the first
horses known in the Euphrates Valley thus being
of the tarpan type.
For centuries Persia has been noted for the ex-
cellence of its horses, the typical breed being near
akin to the Arab but rather taller and more slender
in make. There are, however, other breeds in the
country, such as the Turkoman and the half-bred
Persian and Turkoman in the north-east ; the
Karadagh, a Cossack breed, in the north-west, near
the Russian frontier ; the Kurdish breed in the
province of Kurdistan ; and Arabs in the western
and south-western districts. These Kurdistan
ponies, which are usually grey or bay, came doubt-
less in the first instance from Northern Asia, and
therefore have the same origin as the Turkoman ;
1 The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 211. a Ibid., p. 198.
148 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
when crossed with Arabs, they are largely exported
into Turkey. They stand from 14 to 14^ hands.
The true Persian may be regarded as a derivative
from the Turkoman stock, specially modified by a
greater infusion of Arab blood.
The Turkoman, or Turki, horse takes its name
from Turkestan, its original home, although it has
spread into Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor.
There are several strains, of which the finest in-
habit the country to the south of Lake Aral and the
Sir Daria, or Oxus. Standing from 15 to 1 6 hands
in height, and capable of great endurance, these
horses have large, Roman-nosed heads, ewe-necks,
slender bodies, and long limbs. Although gener-
ally bay or grey in colour, some of them are
black with white feet. The speed of these horses
and such beauty as they possess are due to Arab
parentage, grafted on an original stock doubtless
more or less nearly akin to the Mongolian tarpan ;
and it is noteworthy that the Turkoman horses to
the north of the aforesaid line are much smaller
and show much less evidence of Arab blood than
those to the south of the same.
Farther east the Turkoman gives place to the
Mongolian pony, and the nearly related breeds of
Bhutan, Nepal, Spiti, Ladak and Yarkand, to which
allusion has been already made in the chapter on
the tarpan, where mention is likewise made of the
striped dun Kathiawar horses and the piebald
SOME FOREIGN BREEDS 149
tanghans of Tibet, both of which appear to be de-
rivatives from the tarpan stock crossed with Arab
blood.
Reference may, however, be made in this place
to the horses of Northern Spain, which are quite
distinct from those of the south. Many of them are
grey and roan-grey, but in the sierras occurs a dun-
coloured breed, in which the legs are frequently
striped. That these are typical representatives of
the old European dun stock may, as Professor
Ridgeway x remarks, be doubtful, as their striping
may be the result of cross-breeding ; but even if
this be so, their colouring is probably due to rever-
sion to the original type. This is indeed practi-
cally admitted by Professor Ridgeway, who on
the page just cited remarks that " the horses of
the Asturias and other mountainous areas of Spain
are probably descended from the European large-
headed horse, which may have continued in a wild
state in Spain down to the Christian era, since
Posidonius mentions horses among the wild animals
of Spain. Of course these horses may have been
simply feral horses, but on the other hand there is
no reason why genuine wild Equida should not have
still survived in wild and mountainous districts."
1 The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 260.
CHAPTER V
THE ARAB STOCK
BY common consent the beautiful and hardy horses
reared by the natives of the Nejd district of Central
Arabia are acknowledged to display the finest de-
velopment of which the equine type, as modified for
speed alone, is capable. It is true, indeed, that
they are outclassed both in the matter of stature
and speed by the modern thoroughbred ; but that
animal is but a derivative from the Arab crossed
with the blood of the horses of Western Europe
and Northern Africa, and its superiority is solely
a matter of careful selection and breeding. The
type was fully present in the Arab, and has
merely been improved and developed. That the
Arab type, with which may be grouped the Barb
of Northern Africa, is markedly distinct from the
original tarpan-like horses of Western Europe — the
so-called cold-blooded horses of the Germans — is ad-
mitted on all hands ; and the only question is as to
the extent and degree of this difference. In other
words, are the Arab and the Barb referable to
Equus caballus, as typified by the original horses
of Scandinavia, or do they represent a species by
150
THE ARAB STOCK 151
themselves ? Are they, in fact, the product and
result of special selection and breeding, like the
modern thoroughbred, or have they existed in
practically their present form since the natural
evolution of the horse tribe was completed ?
To this question, which is by far the most impor-
tant and far-reaching one connected with the history
of the horse tribe, there is, unfortunately, no possi-
bility of giving a decisive and indisputable answer.
Consequently, extreme divergence of opinion, both
on this point and in regard to the original place
of origin of the Arab- Barb type, prevails among
those who have studied and written on the subject.
Colonel Hamilton Smith * seems to have
adopted the view that the Arab is the product of
breeding and selection, since he refers to it as the
most artificial and the first of high-bred horses ;
and he is followed in this view by General W.
Tweedie,2 who remarks that " if special and exclusive
breeding directed to a certain object explains our
English race-horse, there is no need to go further
for the secret of the Arab's foray-mare." No explana-
tion is, however, given as to the stock from which the
Arab horse was developed by selection, although
it is pointed out that there is no evidence that
Persia was the original home. Moreover, there is
the difficulty that, in the first place Arabs are
1 Naturalises Library, Horses, 2nd ed. p. 210.
2 The Arabian Horse, London, 1894, pp. 74, 241.
152 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
unacquainted with the most elementary principles of
horse-breeding, and secondly, that they did not
begin to own and breed horses (at all events in the
coast districts) till about the fifth or sixth century
of our era. The latter fact would lead to the in-
ference, on the assumption that Arabs were the
originators of the breed to which they have given
their name, that there were then no horses of this
stamp in Palestine and Syria, which was not the
case.
Moreover, if some Eastern nation, Arab or
otherwise, was able to produce high-bred horses
from a stock akin to the Mongolian tarpan, there
is not the slightest reason why some of the national-
ities of Western Europe should not have accom-
plished the same feat, which they certainly never
did. And if the Arab was not thus evolved, it
is clearly entitled to rank as a species apart from
the original horses of Western Europe, which,
as has been shown above, there is every reason
to regard as descended from a tarpan-like stock.
A somewhat different view is taken by Mr.
Wilfred Scawen Blunt,1 the well-known breeder
of Arabs, who, after alluding to the fact that
these horses have been maintained by the Bedouin
for at least 1300 years, that is to say, from the
sixth century of our era, goes on to observe that
1 Article " Horse," Encyclopedia of Sport, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 426,
1911.
PLATE XIV
FIG. 2
FIG. I. The Darley Arabian.
Fio. 2. " Persimmon," the famous Thoroughbred Stallion owned by
THE ARAB STOCK 153
according to local tradition the Arab " is a separate
wild breed kept pure in the desert from the time
of his first capture and domestication ; that his
habitat was Nejd and the high plateaux of Yemen,
and that he owes his distinguishing qualities to
the fact that his original blood has never been
mixed with that of breeds of inferior type. In
physical science there is as yet nothing positively
ascertained which would show this to be improbable.
The high plateaux of Arabia, though all of them
desert land, . . . are neither without pasture nor
without water. It is unquestionable that the wild
ass existed, if he does not still exist, in Yemen,
and the wild horse, too, may have there existed."
Later on it is added that "it is quite conceivable
that in the gradual drying of the peninsula, of
which we have geological proof, a section of the
wild species may have found itself cut off in the
south from the rest of its kind, and have developed
there in isolation the special qualities we find in
the Kehailan [Arab]."
From the concluding passage it may be inferred
that the writer considers the Arab to be descended
from the same species as that which gave rise to the
ordinary horses of Western Europe ; the argument
will, however, stand just as well, and be even
stronger, if the ancestral stock were regarded as
a species by itself. In either case, some of the
objections raised against the views previously
154 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
referred to will be applicable ; and if the Arabs had
these wild horses in their midst from Prehistoric time
it is difficult to see why they did not domesticate
them till the fifth or sixth century, previous to
which they appear to have used camels.
As to the argument that we have no evidence
of the former existence of wild horses in Central
Arabia, the same negative testimony might once
have been cited to prove that there were never
elephants in Mesopotamia, whereas there is geologi-
cal and historical evidence to show that a species
closely allied to, if not identical with, the Indian
elephant inhabited that country during the early
part of the human era.
Professor Ridgeway,1 on the other hand, be-
lieves Northern Africa to have been the birthplace
of the Arab stock. "It is now clear," he writes,
" that for many centuries before the Arabs ever
owned a horse, all the Libyan tribes possessed
a most notable breed, which in size, shape, speed,
colour, and docility, very closely resembled the
kohl breed of Arabia. As it has been shown that
Egypt was exporting horses into Asia Minor in
the time of Solomon, and that Arab tradition points
to Egypt as the region from whence the best
horses were obtained in the time of Muhammad,
and as Egypt derived her horses in great part
from Libya, we are justified in concluding that
1 The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 246.
THE ARAB STOCK 155
the ancestors of the kohl breed of Arabia came
from North Africa."
While admitting that the statement with regard
to the early date at which the Libyans were in
possession of horses may be perfectly true, it by
no means follows that these horses were derived
from an aboriginally wild African stock. In the
first place, all the existing wild African representa-
tives of the horse family are either asses (quite
distinct from the so-called wild asses of Asia),
zebras, or quaggas. It is true, indeed, that remains
of extinct Equidce have been obtained from the
superficial deposits of Algeria, and that these may
be referable to true horses, more especially since
many of the animals of North Africa are of a
European type, and therefore quite distinct from
those characteristic of the rest of the African conti-
nent. There is, however, no evidence that this
was the case ; and the point is apparently considered
of no importance by Professor Ridgeway, who has
devoted a whole chapter of his oft-cited work
to a discussion of the origin of the Libyan horse.
For he labours to show that the latter is related
to the zebra-quagga group. Indeed he once went
the length of suggesting that the North African
horse is derived from Gravy's zebra. As indica-
tions of zebra-affinities he affirms that African
horses show a more marked tendency to be striped
than breeds which have not the same blood in
156 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
their veins ; and he also suggests that the white
frontal star and stockings so commonly seen in
African and Arab horses are remnants of the mark-
ings of zebras and quaggas. Whatever value
may attach to the first argument, the second, as
already mentioned in the first chapter, has been
shown by Mr. Pocock1 to be utterly untrust-
worthy, such white markings being merely one
of the first stages in the development of albinism.
Moreover, the absence of the hind chestnuts and the
nature of the front ones in zebras and asses show
wide divergence from the horse.
As a matter of fact, the theory of the origin
of the Arab type from the zebra-quagga group
has not a leg to stand upon ; and this being so,
there remains little to be said in favour of an
African birthplace for the former. That horses
of the Arab type have existed in Libya from a
very early date may be freely admitted. But the
same is the case with humped cattle and their
derivatives, which, as has been shown in the present
writer's volume on the ox, originally came from
South-western Asia, and are probably derived from
the wild bantin of the Malay countries. Moreover,
there is good reason to believe that the other
domesticated ungulates of Africa, such as sheep,
goats, and swine, are of Asiatic origin ; and there
1 Annals and Magazine of Nat. History, ser. \8, vol. iv. fp.
406, 1909.
THE ARAB STOCK 157
is accordingly a primd facie probability that a
similar origin may be attributed to the domesticated
horses of Africa.
This view is adopted by Mr. T. A. Cook,1 who,
after referring to Professor Ridgeway's Libyan
theory, and stating that the Barb is as different
from the true Arab as is the Turk from either,
proceeds to observe that "as a matter of much
greater probability, the kehailan, or Arabian, was
the original type from which both Barb and
Turk were early derivatives, and it was from the
East, and not from the West, that ancient Egypt
took her best breed, as eighteenth-century England
took it later on."
As mentioned in an earlier chapter,2 Dr. Duerst
holds that the Arab had an Asiatic origin, and
that, like the horses of Western Europe, it was a
derivative from the tarpan stock ; the intermediate
form in the case of the Arab being his so-called
desert type. " The wild ancestral form," he writes,
" was the same for both [that is, the Arab and
the horse of Western Europe] ; it was the diluvial
horse of the ancient world, which roamed as far as
the loess-steppes and tundra-plains extended ; and
which, surviving in separate groups the disappear-
ance of the tundras, was transformed, according to
1 Eclipse and O* Kelly, London, 1907, p. 13.
2 Supra, p. 96 ; the passage here quoted is from page 399 of
Dr. Duerst's work.
158 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the newly-developing regional physiographic in-
fluences, into the desert type, the steppe type, and
the forest type."
It is now time to devote attention to the physical
attributes of the Arab, of which, so far as general
external features are concerned, an excellent
summary is given by Prof. David Law,1 who adopts
the view that these are due to adaptation to sur-
roundings.
" Arabs," he writes, " are more compact than the
horses of Barbary, having a rounder body, shorter
limbs, with more of sinew, or what is termed bone.
Yet they are of the smaller class of horses, very
little exceeding, on a medium, fourteen hands, or
fifty-six inches, in height. As compared with the
horses of countries abounding in the grasses, their
aspect is lean, their form slender, and their chest
narrow. But the slimness of figure of these horses
is not inconsistent with muscular force ; and their
movements are agile, their natural paces swift, and
their spirit is unmatched. The power of their
delicate limbs is indicated by the well-marked
muscles of the fore-arm, and the starting sinews
of the leg. The shoulder is sufficiently oblique ;
the withers are elevated : the back is moderately
short ; and the quarters are good. The head is
well formed ; the forehead is broad ; the ears are
1 Domesticated Animals of the British Islands ; 2nd ed. p. 476.
THE ARAB STOCK 159
somewhat long, but alert; the eyes full and clear;
the veins prominent. . . .
" These desert horses subsist on the scantiest
food, and are patient of hunger and thirst in a
degree unknown in any other races except the
African. They feed on the scanty plants which
the borders of the desert supply, and when these
are wanting, on a little barley, with chopped straw,
withered herbs, roots, dates, and, in cases of need,
the milk of the camel. They drink at long intervals
and in moderate quantities. They bear continued
exposure to the fiercest heat, and day after day
perform marches of incredible toil through the
burning sands of the wilderness."
In the foregoing account sufficient emphasis is
not laid on the absence of slope in the rump, and
the consequent high setting of the tail ; features
differing markedly from those obtaining in the
wild tarpan and its relatives. The average height
is also under-estimated, many Arabs standing \\\
or 14! hands.
The colour of Arabs is commonly bay or chest-
nut, frequently with a star on the forehead and one
or more of the fetlocks white ; but it may be black
or grey, although never dun. For the various
strains of Arabs, the reader may be referred to
other works ; and it will suffice to mention that
the highest or pure-bred is the one known as kohl
or kehailan ; both names referring apparently to
i6o THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the blackness of the skin, which is compared to
antimony (kohl). Five strains of the kohl breed
are generally recognised by the Bedouin, of which
the kehailan is the first and best. Here it may be
mentioned that the low-caste horses of the towns
are termed khadishes by the Bedouin.
Taking both external and anatomical characters
into consideration, Professor H. F. Osborn1 has
formulated the following features as distinctive of
the Arab : — The skull is relatively short, very wide
between the eye-sockets, which are high and pro-
minent, giving the eyes a wide range of vision,
while the profile of the face is concave (pi. ix. fig. 2)
and the lower jaw slender in front and deep and
wide-set behind. The chest is rounded, and the
back and the loins are well " ribbed up," due to the
fact that there are only five (in place of the normal
six) lumbar or ribless vertebrae. The pelvis has a
nearly horizontal position — a character connected
with speed ; the croup, or tail-region, is relatively
high, and the number of caudal, or tail, vertebrae
few. In the limbs the shaft of the ulna, or small
bone of the lower part of the fore-leg, is complete ;
the cannon-bones are elongated and slender, and
the pasterns long arid sloping. Allusion is also
made to the occurrence of a slight depression in
front of the eye-socket, and to the statement that
1 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. vol. xxiii. p. 259, 1907.
THE ARAB STOCK 161
the bones are denser than in ordinary horses. The
latter feature was not, however, observable in an
American skeleton, although it may occur in desert-
bred Arabs. The features to which the greatest
importance are attributed comprise the sinuous
facial profile (due to a relatively large brain), the
absence of a sixth lumbar vertebra, the complete
shaft of the ulna, and the shortness of the tail,
which has sixteen in place of eighteen vertebrae.
As regards the completeness of the ulna, it is notice-
able that the same feature was observed in a
skeleton of Grevy's zebra. Taken together, the
foregoing distinctive features, in the opinion of
Professor Osborn, are sufficient to justify the specific
separation of the Arab, which appears to be de-
scended from ancestors distinct from those which
gave rise to the ordinary northern and western
horses.
Fuller allusion has been made in a previous
chapter x to the preorbital depression in the skull
which appears to be characteristic of horses of the
Arab and Barb stock. It should be added that in
Arabs the cheek-teeth (pi. v. fig. 2) are relatively
small in comparison with the skull, and that the
upper premolars have their transverse diameter as
large as or larger than the longitudinal one, which
is not the case with the horses of Western Europe,2
1 Supra, p. 22.
2 See Duerst, Animal Remains from Anau, p. 386.
L
162 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
while the foldings of the enamel in all the cheek-
teeth are rather more complex than in the latter,
and the longitudinal diameter of the anterior pillar
is proportionately small. The first upper premolar,
or "wolf-tooth," is not infrequently developed in
the upper jaw.
Professor Osborn adds that if the Arab is to
be considered specifically distinct from the horse
of Western Europe, it should bear the name Equus
africanus, which was applied by Sanson 1 in the
year 1869 to the Dongola breed. Professor Ridge-
way2 has taken objection to that name, and pro-
posed to replace it by E. libycus or E. caballus libycus,
on the ground that the Dongola horse is a half-
breed, but such an objection is invalid. On the
other hand, there is an insurmountable bar to the
use of the name africanus owing to the fact that it
was employed by Fitzinger in 1857 as the designa-
tion of the African wild ass, for one of the races
of which, as will be seen in the sequel, it is still
used. There is, however, the name E. asiaticus,
proposed for the Arab by Sanson in the passage
cited, which is free from objection ; and that animal
may therefore be known either as E. asiaticus or
E. caballus asiaticus, according as to whether it is
regarded as a species or a race.
In discussing the origin of the Arab, Professor
1 Comptes Rendus A cad. Set. Paris, vol. clxix. p. 1205.
2 The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 477, 1905.
THE ARAB STOCK 163
Ridge way claims that India cannot have been the
home of the ancestral stock, owing to the fact that
during the historical period that country has been
unsuitable for horse-breeding. The Narbada valley
of Central India was, however, inhabited during
the Pleistocene, or latest geological epoch, and pro-
bably within the human period, by an extinct horse
(Equus namadicus], while a second species (E.
sivalensis] has left its remains in the some-
what older (Pliocene) deposits at the foot of the
Himalaya. Obviously, then, the argument that
India (which at the present day nurtures the
onager in Sind and Cutch) is unsuited to horses
applies only to part of the existing epoch.
Now the Siwalik horse agrees with the Arab
in the degree to which the facial part of the skull
is bent down on the basal axis, in the presence of
a preorbital depression, in the great relative width
of the upper premolars, and in the complexity of
the enamel-foldings in the centres of all the upper
cheek-teeth, and the shortness of the grinding-
surfaces of their anterior inner pillars ; the two
latter features being, indeed, more developed in the
extinct species than in the Arab, and thereby
approximating to the condition obtaining in the
extinct three-toed hipparion, as described in a later
chapter. The extinct species has also a large upper
wolf-tooth.
I have therefore suggested the possibility of
164 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the Arab being the descendant of the Siwalik horse
or some nearly allied species from Southern Asia,
not necessarily India. It has been suggested that
as the extinct Equus stenonis has likewise a pre-
orbital depression and short grinding surfaces to
the anterior inner pillars of the upper cheek-teeth,
it may claim to be regarded as the ancestor of the
Arab or the Siwalik species. It was not, however,
a native of the countries where, in my own opinion,
the Arab probably originated.
Turning to the Barb type, this breed has its
native home in Morocco and Algeria, and in its
original form stands from fourteen to fifteen hands
at the withers. It is characterised by the flat
shoulders, rounded chest, relatively long head, and,
as compared with the Arab, the lower setting of
the tail, the hair of which, like that of the mane, .is
profusely developed. The prevailing colours are
dark bay, brown, chestnut, black, and grey. The
skull has the same sinuous profile as that of the
Arab; but the teeth have not been described.
Formerly the Barb was extensively crossed with
Syrian Arabs, while in Algeria it has of late years
been much mingled with European horses, so that
pure-bred animals are not easy to obtain. The Barb
will thrive on as poor fare as the Arab, and is
equally hardy in constitution and docile in temper,
although somewhat less spirited. Several strains
THE ARAB STOCK 165
of the Barb type are recognised by Col. Hamilton
Smith, the first of which is reared by the Mograbins
on the western side of the plains south of the Atlas,
to whom it is known as shrubat-ur-rich (drinker
of the wind). These horses, which may be either
grey or brown in colour, are low and greyhound-
like in shape, and carry very little flesh. More
remarkable is the Bornu breed, from the district
south of Lake Chad, which is stated to be greyish-
white with black legs. The tail is set rather low,
the legs and feet are beautifully made, and the body
is relatively short.
A third breed occurs typically in the Dongola
district of Nubia, but is also found in Alfaia and
Gerri. Typical horses of this breed are stated to
be very similar in make to the Bornu type, but
those of Alfaia and Gerri are smaller. The normal
colours are bay, black, and white, with white legs
in the two former. Professor Ridgeway regards
the black and grey Dongola horses as half-breds,
but the evidence for this does not appear very con-
clusive.
The near relationship of the Turkish horse to
the Arab has been already mentioned ; and in Spain
the jennet presents an equally close affinity to the
Barb, from which it has undoubtedly been derived.
Jennets, as might be expected, occur in their purest
form in the southern provinces of Spain, especially
1 66 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Andalucia, Granada, and Estremadura. Bay
appears to be the predominating colour, next to
which come black and grey. It has been very
generally considered that Barb blood was first
introduced into Spain during the Saracen Conquest,
but Professor Ridgeway adduces evidence to show
that the introduction occurred about a thousand
years earlier, although a fresh infusion of the same
blood was brought in by the Moors at the time they
overran the country. Jennets are characterised by
their easy pacing amble.
The horses of Northern Spain, which are
smaller than jennets, but may have a certain infusion
of Barb blood, are referred to at the end of the
fourth chapter.
The influence which Arab and Barb blood has
had on the indigenous breed of European and
Asiatic horses has been incidentally mentioned in
the course of the preceding chapters.
The triumph of the Arab-Barb stock, when
mated with the best indigenous breed, has been the
development of the English thoroughbred, although,
as the latter is essentially a modern type, it can
receive but brief notice in the present volume. It
will accordingly suffice to state that although the
English breed of fast horses had been undergoing
a slow but steady improvement for centuries, and
that an Arab stallion (the " Markham Arabian ") was
purchased for King James I. in 1616, it was to three
THE ARAB STOCK 167
horses, the " Byerly Turk," the " Darley Arabian'1
(pi. xiv. fig. i), and the "Godolphin Barb," that the
evolution of the modern thoroughbred is mainly due.
The " Byerly Turk," taking his name from Captain
Byerly, his owner, was imported in 1689; and
from him was descended " Herod," who gave his
name to one of the three great lines of English
racing stock. The " Darley Arabian " was pur-
chased in Aleppo during the reign of Queen Anne
by the brother of his owner, Mr. Darley, of Aldby
Park, Yorkshire in 1702. 1 He gave rise to " Flying
Childers," and " Harriett's Childers," from the latter
of whom the famous " Eclipse," the great-great-
grandson of the " Darley Arabian," and the founder
of the Eclipse line, was descended. " Persimmon "
(pi. xiv. fig. 2), owned by King Edward VII.,
was a direct descendant of " Eclipse, " and affords
an example of the. great increase which has taken
place in the stature of racehorses ; his shoulder-
height being 16^ hands, whereas that of " Eclipse,"
who was considered an unusually big horse for his
time, was only about 15^ hands.
" Persimmon" was foaled in 1893; his sire
being " St. Simon," and his dam " Perdita II."
He was winner of the Derby and the St. Leger
in 1896, and of the Ascot Gold Cup and
1 The date is usually given as 1710, but the picture at Aldby
Park from which pi. xiv. fig. i is copied, is inscribed 1702.
Galopin,
St. Simon,
1872
1881
St. Angela,
PERSIMMON,
1865
1893
Hampton,
Perdita II.,
1872
1881
Hermione,
1875
i68 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Eclipse Stakes in 1897. His pedigree is as
follows : —
fVedette, 1854
\FlyingDuchess, 1853'
fKing Tom, 1851
\Adeline, 1851
j Lord Clifden, 1860
\Lady Langden, 1868
/Young Melbourne, 185 5
lLa Belle Helene, 1866
Lastly, we have the " Godolphin Barb," a dark
bay horse with some white on the off hind-fetlock,
who was purchased in Paris about 1784, and pre-
sented to Lord Godolphin (by whom he was regarded
as an Arab). From his grandson, " Matchem," the
third great line of English thoroughbreds derives
its title. "Herod," "Eclipse," and "Matchem,"
it should be mentioned, were closely related ; and
it is to their descendants that the term thorough-
bred should be restricted.
As the thoroughbred has been developed solely
from the point of view of speed combined with
staying power, it is only natural that he should not
conform to the ideal type of equine beauty ; and, as
a matter of fact, the frequent presence of ewe-neck
detracts from perfect symmetry. Neither are
these horses safe to ride. They have the broad
forehead, brilliant eyes, delicate muzzle, expanded
nostrils, and wide throat of the Arab and the Barb,
with the body long and light, and the last rib
THE ARAB STOCK 169
rather widely separated from the pelvis. The chest
is deep but narrow, thus affording due space for the
lungs without making the fore-limbs too wide apart.
The obliquity of the shoulder gives full play to the
upper part of the leg ; while the extreme length
of the haunch, and the elongated hind-limbs, with
their long, sloping pasterns, are essentially adapted
for the maximum development of speed. The
most common colour is bright bay or brown, with
black legs, mane, and tail, although chestnut is not
infrequent ; but black and grey (especially at the
present time) are less common.
Although, as stated above, the development of
the English thoroughbred did not take place till the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it is important
to mention that Irish hunters, which have long been
celebrated, were derived from Barb horses imported
into Ireland from Spain several centuries earlier.
Remarks on the inheritance of coat-colour
in thoroughbreds and on a possible connection be-
tween colour and speed will be found in the first
chapter.
CHAPTER VI
FERAL HORSES
ALTHOUGH the comparatively modern domesticated
breeds produced in America, Australia, and other
countries to which the horse is not indigenous do
not come within the purview of this volume,
reference must be made to horses which have run
wild in various parts of the world, since some of
these display features of considerable interest in
connection with the history and evolution of the
family. For domesticated animals that have
escaped from captivity and reverted to a more
or less completely wild condition, it is frequently
convenient to employ the term " feral " ; for, al-
though this term, which is derived from the Latin
ferus, is etymologically equivalent to the English
" wild," it has acquired a special restricted meaning,
which can be expressed by no other word in our
language.
To North America horses were introduced
during the Spanish Conquest, and their feral
descendants, like those of South America, are
consequently of Spanish origin, and therefore of
the Barb type, just as the feral cattle were originally
170
FERAL HORSES 171
of the zebu stock. Writing in 1829, Sir John
Richardson stated that at that time herds of feral
horses were to be met with on the plains to the
west of the Mississippi ; and that at an earlier date
they were common in the Kutannie country near
the northern sources of the Columbia River, to
the east of the Rocky Mountains. The young
stallions, which were expelled from the main herds
by their seniors, formed troops by themselves.
Early in the eighteenth century feral horses
abounded in Virginia ; and as these enticed away
the domesticated horses of the English settlers,
the Spanish type became gradually modified.
There are also herds in Texas, where they are
known as mustangs, and likewise in Mexico ; many
of the former being piebald or skewbald.
The feral horses which formerly abounded on the
pampas of Argentina appear to have been descended
from five stallions and seven mares of Andalucian
origin which escaped when the city of Buenos Aires
was suddenly abandoned by its inhabitants about
the year 1535. These rapidly multiplied, and gave
origin to the herds on the pampas to the south and
west of the Rio de la Plata ; but the troops to the
north of that river, in Paraguay, were derived from
another stock. Although these horses frequently
went about in small troops, each led by a stallion,
these troops sometimes combined into herds com-
prising thousands of individuals. When the herds
172 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
sought fresh pastures, they were led by a few of the
older stallions, who gave warning of impending
danger. Like kiang l in Ladak, the herds come up
to gaze at novel objects, and run in circles
round bands of mounted travellers, who on
such occasions find it difficult to prevent their
own animals from escaping. When once caught,
the wild horses of the pampas, like those of the
North American prairies, soon re-acquire domesti-
cated habits. It is stated that these pampas horses,
or baguals, as they are called, have acquired larger
heads, longer ears, and more muscular limbs than
their domesticated ancestors ; although, on account
of the mildness of the climate, there has been no
marked increase in the length of their coats. Very
noteworthy is the statement2 that "their colour is
always of a chestnut-brown, and never dun, as in
the Tatar races ; and whenever a bay, a black, or
other colour appears, it is inferred that the indi-
vidual is of the domesticated race, and has made its
escape and joined the wild herds." This affords
further evidence in favour of the view that the Barb,
or Andalucian stock, is descended from a species
distinct from the wild dun tarpan of Mongolia.
Horses from La Plata, and therefore probably
of the Andalucian type, were introduced by the
French in 1764 to the Falkland Islands, where
1 See chapter vii.
2 See Low, Domesticated Animals of British Islands^ p. 499.
FERAL HORSES 173
they subsequently ran wild. According to Darwin,
their predominating colours are roan and grey : like
the domesticated cattle of the same inclement
islands, they have become stunted in size, their
average height being only about 14^ hands. It is
stated that the Falkland horses, like the tarpan, have
the habit of scraping away snow with their hoofs
in order to get at the herbage beneath ; and it is
generally considered that this is an instance of re-
version, although this can scarcely be the case if
they are all of Andalucian, i.e. Barb, stock. The
Puno ponies of the high Cordillera of Chile
afford another instance of a dwarf feral race
apparently derived from the same stock.
In A Naturalist on the " Challenger" Professor
H. F. Moseley states that in the peninsula of
Lafonia, where the Falkland horses run larger than
elsewhere, the stallions guard their own herds of
mares. " They keep the closest watch over them,
and if one strays at all, drive her back into the
herd by kicking her. The younger horses live in
herds apart, but the more vigorous ones are always
on the look-out to pick up a mare from the herds
of the older ones, and drive her off with them, and
they sometimes gather a few mares for a short time
and hold them till they are recaptured. When
they think they are strong enough, they try the
strength of the old horses in battle, and even-
tually each old horse is beaten by some rival and
174 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
displaced. The fighting is done mainly with the
tusks, and front to front, not with the heels. Thus
the most active and strongest males are constantly
selected naturally for the continuation of the herds."
In most parts of America the feral horses
appear to have no special difficulty in defending
themselves from the attacks of predatory carnivora,
such as jaguars, pumas, lynxes, wolves, coyotes,
and bears. The case is, however, different in
certain parts of Patagonia, where pumas are so
numerous that wild horses seem unable to exist.
It has accordingly been suggested by Mr. W. H.
Hudson that these carnivores were the cause of the
extermination of the indigenous American repre-
sentatives of the equine family. The suggestion,
however, was made at a time when the possibility
of extermination being frequently due to bacterial
agencies was not generally recognised.
The following extracts from a letter published
by Professor Ridgeway * afford valuable informa-
tion with regard to feral horses in Australia : —
" Wild horses have been running in the mountain-
ous country of East Gippsland, in which are the
sources of the Buchan River, and through which
flow the Snowy River and its tributary the Deddik.
To this I must add the dividing range from Omeo
to Mount Kosciusko. These wild horses probably
date back in places to a time antecedent to the
1 The Thoroughbred Horse, p. 431.
FERAL HORSES 175
discovery of Gippsland in 1842. On the Manero
table-land, which lies on the New South Wales
side of the border, and extends up to Kosciusko and
Kiandra, and Sunit, as also from the country to the
heel of the dividing range, I have no doubt that
horses escaped and became wild. Of course these
have been of all kinds. On the high mountain
plateau which lies between the upper Tambo River
and the sources of the Buchan River I have seen
horses which can best be described as dwarfed
cart-horses, and probably were the descendants of
light draught stock used by prospectors and miners
in the early times of gold-discovery — after 1850.
The country they lived in is very high and cold,
being covered in winter with snow, and altogether ill
adapted to feral horses. In the warmer but very
hilly country which lies to the east of the Snowy
River in Victoria . . . the horses were of a much
better stamp, in many cases showing good breeding,
partly owing to the excellent stamp of the New
South Wales horses of about fifty years ago, but
also to the fact that a Persian horse . . . escaped
and lived for many years in the Tubbut country."
In some of the above districts these brumbies, as
they are locally called, became a nuisance to the
settlers, by whom they were eventually exterminated,
and a similar extirpation of feral horses has taken
place, for the same reason, in other parts of the
world.
CHAPTER VII
THE KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP
THE wild Asiatic representatives of the Equida,
other than the tarpan, are commonly known as wild
asses, but they have really no right to that name,
any more than they have to be called horses, in the
literal sense of that term. Indeed, this does not
really express the truth of the matter, for some of
them are more nearly related to the horse than they
are to the ass. Consequently it is far preferable
to employ their native or classical names, such as
chigetai, kulan, kiang, onager, and ghor-khar. The
near relationship of these animals to the horse,
and more especially the wild tarpan, may be made
apparent by the following table : —
I. — All the hoofs broad, the front much broader than the
hind pair.
i. — Front hoofs very broad, chestnuts usually on all the
legs, ears small, tail more or less completely haired
to root, front of fore-legs usually black in bay or dun-
coloured individuals. The horse, Equus caballus.
a. — Mane long and pendent, with a forelock, tail long
and fully haired, normally no dorsal or shoulder
stripe. E. c. typicus. Domesticated breeds, typified
by those of Sweden and Norway (exclusive of the
Arab and Barb stock).
176
•
KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP 177
b. — Mane short and erect, basal portion of tail short-
haired, a dorsal and a shoulder stripe in the summer
coat, muzzle usually white or yellowish. The
Mongolian tarpan, E. c. przevalskii.
ii. — Front hoofs less broad, chestnuts on fore-legs only,
ears large, tail short-haired for a considerable distance
from the root, front of fore-legs yellowish or white. The
kiang and onager group, E. hcmionus, &c., of Asia.
II. — All the hoofs narrow and nearly alike in form. This
group includes domesticated and wild asses, zebras, and
quaggas, all of which are African.
In addition to their broader front hoofs, the
members of the kiang group are characterised by
the absence of striping on the head, body, and
limbs, the general rufous or sandy colour of the
upper-parts, and the lighter tint of the under surface
of the body, part of the buttocks, and the limbs,
all of which may indeed be white. In all cases
the spinal region is traversed by a dark dorsal
stripe, varying in width in the different species ;
and occasionally faint bands are noticeable on the
shoulders, knees, and hocks. As a rule, the mane,
which is upright, and the terminal tuft of the tail,
are black. To a considerable extent the cry, which
in the case of the kiang has been described as a
shrieking bray, is intermediate between the neigh
of the horse and the bray of the ass, although
apparently nearer to the former than to the latter.
Kiangs and onagers are, however, distinctly less
noisy animals than the ass ; and in this respect
present, perhaps, another point of resemblance to
M
178 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the horse. The ears, although larger than in the
horse, lack the excessive length and breadth dis-
tinguishing those of the ass. On the other hand,
the members of the kiang group display affinity
to zebras and asses, not only in the absence
of hind-chestnuts, and the large size and smooth
surface of the front ones, but likewise in the length
of the period of gestation, which is about a twelve-
month, whereas the mare only goes with young
for eleven months.
Of all the members of the group the largest,
and in some respects the finest, is the kiang
(E quits kiang) of the elevated plateaux of Ladak
and Tibet, where it goes about in small troops,
which gallop in circles round the mounted traveller
or his camp in such a manner as to completely
prevent in many instances the successful pursuit
of nobler game, or, I might say, game of any
kind, as kiang are scarcely entitled to that designa-
tion. Curiosity is a marked trait of the kiang ;
so strongly developed in some instances that young
individuals, as has happened to myself, will walk
almost into the camp. These animals are free
movers, going at a fine, springy trot, and the
manner in which they traverse the most rocky
ground, and this, too, at an elevation of between
13,000 and 16,000 feet, is marvellous; their hoofs
must be like flint, and their lungs as strong as
bellows.
PLATE XV
FIG. i
FIG. 2
•MB
KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP 179
The kiang (pi. xv. fig. i), which has a shoulder-
height of about 13 hands, has been regarded as a
local race of the chigetai, but it differs from that
animal by the redder colour of the upper-parts, and
the sharply-defined demarcation between this red
area and the white of the muzzle, under-parts,
buttocks, and limbs, thus giving a kind of skewbald
appearance, which is most marked when the animal
is in its short summer coat ; the long and shaggy
winter dress tending to obscure the difference
between the dark and the light areas. The ears
are characterised by the presence of a dark patch
at the base, and another at the tip.
The kiang was first brought to scientific notice
by Moorcroft, one of the early explorers of Kashmir
and Ladak, whose travels, which contain an excellent
account of the habits of the animal, were published
in London in 1841. In Ladak the kiang is to be
met with a few marches to the eastward of the city
of Leh, and abounds in the great Chang-Chenmo
plain and the arid country around the wonderful
Pangong lake, the home of the chiru or Tibetan
antelope, and formerly, the yak. Thence it extends
northwards to the Kuen-Lun and eastwards into
Tibet, where the limits of its range are still un-
known. Scant as appears to be the nutriment
in these barren countries, which in summer are
scorched at midday by a burning sun, but become
bitterly cold at night, it suffices to keep these
i8o THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
animals, as well as hares and marmots, in prime
condition./
' Unlike the African wild ass, which displays
a holy horror of water, the kiang is very partial
to that element, and never lives far away from
some lake, river, or stream, into which, when
occasion requires, it plunges without hesitation
to take a longer or shorter swim, despite the icy
coldness of Tibetan rivers.
In Mongolia the kiang is replaced by its cousin
the chigetai (or dziggetai, as the name is spelt in
German fashion), E. hemionus, which is a rather
smaller and more uniformly coloured animal, of
lighter make, and more rounded hoofs. The dif-
ference in general appearance is due in the first
place to the less rufous tint of the darker areas
in the summer coat, and secondly to the fact that
this shades off almost imperceptibly into the
dirty white of the under surface of the body and
the paler fawn of the throat and limbs. Having
the same narrow dorsal stripe and dark tips to
the ears as the kiang, the chigetai lacks the dark
patch at the base of the ears distinctive of the
latter. Information is still required with regard
to the extent of the range of the chigetai ; but
the animal is generally believed to be identical with
the kulan of the Kirghiz Tatars.
Nearly allied to the chigetai is the species
known in Persia as the ghor-khar, i.e. horse-ass,
KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP 181
and to the ancients as onager, i.e. wild ass (Greek
onosy ass, and agrios, wild), which inhabits the
deserts of Asia from Syria and Persia in the west
to North-western India and Mongolia in the east.
The onager (Equus onager), which is the wild ass
of the Bible, is a rather smaller and paler-coloured
animal than the chigetai, with nearly as well marked
a contrast between the dark and light areas as
in the kiang. Standing from n to nj hands
at the shoulder, it has ears of much the same
relative length as in the chigetai, but the hoofs
narrower and more ass-like, this being especially
the case with the front pair, which are scarcely
wider than the hind ones. The profile of the face
may be either nearly straight or markedly sinuous ;
the tail-tuft is of moderate size ; and the dark
dorsal stripe, which is always much wider than
in either the kiang or the chigetai, stops in some
cases short of the tail-tuft, and is flanked on either
side, at least in the posterior half of its length,
by a white or whitish band, joining the white
on the buttocks and the backs of the thighs. In
the summer coat the general colour of the upper-
parts is usually some shade of pale reddish fawn
or sandy, while the light areas, which vary from
pure white to whitey brown, are much the same
in extent as those of the kiang, but embrace more
of the buttocks, from which they spread along
the margins of the dorsal stripe, and in some cases
1 82 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
occupy more of the body and head. In winter,
when it grows much longer and rougher, the coat
becomes more or less decidedly grey, and in one
race is distinctly mouse-grey, with sharply-defined
white areas.
With such a wide geographical distribution,
it is not surprising to find that the species is divis-
ible into a number of more or less well-defined
local races. One of the best-known of these is
the Indian ghor-khar (E. onager indicus} of the
desert districts of Sind, Cutch, Baluchistan, Eastern
Persia, Afghanistan, and thence as far north as
Bokhara, which is stated to attain a height of n^
hands, and comes nearest to the chigetai. In
Baluchistan the ghor-khar is most abundant near
Mithankot, on the Punjab frontier. These dis-
tricts lie to the west of the Indus ; to the east
of that river the chief districts frequented by this
animal are Bikanir, Jeysulmere, and the saline
tract known as the Rann of Cutch. With a straight
facial profile, this ghor-khar has the general colour
of the upper-parts sandy in summer, with the
light band on each side of the dorsal stripe narrow,
ill-defined, and whitey brown, and the white on
the rump and thighs not pure. The broad dorsal
stripe does not reach as far as the tail-tuft in the
Indian representatives of this race, although it is
stated to do so in Persian examples.
The second race,ZT. o. castaneus($\. xv. fig. 2), is at
KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP 183
present known only by a single example, reported
to have come from the Kirghis-Nor, in the Kobdo
district of Western Mongolia.1 It is characterised
by the straight profile of the face, the rufous isabella-
colour of the summer and the full greyish brown
of the long winter coat, as well as by the large
amount of white on the buttocks, and the distinct-
ness of the pure white band on each side of the
broad chocolate-coloured dorsal stripe, which reaches
to the tail -tuft; the lateral white bands uniting
with a broad white blaze on the buttocks, which
is larger than in the other races. The short ears
have more black at the tips than in the Indian
race. In the typical or Persian ghor-khar (E. o.
typicus), from Western Persia, to the southward of
the Caspian, the white areas, as compared with
those of the Indian race, have become so enlarged
as to give the appearance of a white animal with
three large fawn-coloured patches on each side.
The general colour is silvery white ; the dorsal
stripe does not reach the tail-tuft; and the head,
the sides of the neck, a small ill-defined band on
the front of the shoulder, a larger quadrangular
patch on the side of the body, and the middle of
the hip, are isabella-colour, or pale sandy fawn.
The facial profile is distinctly convex, and the ears
are relatively small.
Owing to our imperfect acquaintance with the
1 The locality is doubtful.
184 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
animals of Syria and Palestine, the fourth race
(E. o. hemippus), the wild ass of Scripture, cannot
yet be properly described. It inhabits the deserts
between Bagdad and Palmyra, Mesopotamia, and
Northern Arabia. Nearly related to the last, it
appears to be reddish isabelline above, with the
throat, under-parts, and a band on each side of the
dorsal stripe silvery white, the dorsal stripe not
reaching the root of the tail, which is moderately
haired, and the profile of the skull sinuous.
The extremely light colour of the Persian race
appears to be an adaptation to a purely desert
existence, being paralleled in Africa by the mohr
gazelle and the white oryx of the Sahara. Other
adaptations to surroundings are shown by the thick-
ness and length of the winter coat of the reputed
Kobdo race, which is evidently an inhabitant of a
country with a cold winter, as compared with that
of the Indian race, which is quite short.
Like all large desert herbivorous animals, the
ghor-khar is famed for its speed ; this being so
great that adults in good condition can neither be
ridden down (unless, perchance by relays of horse-
men) nor taken with greyhounds. Baluchis are
indeed stated to have accomplished the former feat,
but this was probably only when mares heavy in
foal were the objects of pursuit. On the other
hand, ghor-khar foals are commonly captured in
summer in the Bikanir desert by parties of , mounted
KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP 185
Baluchis, who relieve one another, and are thus
enabled to continue the pursuit till the victims are
completely exhausted.
Ghor-khars are mostly found on the fringe of
desert plains, where they usually associate in small
troops, although in Afghanistan herds containing
sometimes a thousand head have been observed ;
such large herds being apparently composed of
mares and foals, the old stallions collecting in
smaller troops by themselves. In Baluchistan, as
probably also in Persia, the foals are born in June,
July, and August. On the plains the food of the
onager consists of desert grasses, which are often
in a parched and withered condition. In Baluchistan
ghor-khars migrate to the hills in early summer
when the plains are practically devoid of grass and
water. Unlike the kiang, they are exceedingly
shy and suspicious, and consequently difficult to
approach within rifle-range.
In former days kulan and onagers appear to
have ranged much further westward than is the
case at the present day. It is stated, for instance,
by the Russian naturalist Rytschkov1 that in the
eighteenth century kulan abounded on the eastern
side of the Volga, and from time to time troops
swam that river and made their appearance in the
Waldinsel Steppe. Then, again, in spite of the
difficulty of specifically distinguishing many of the
1 See Nehring, Uber Tundren und Steppen, p. 187.
1 86 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
fossil remains of the genus Equus, it is generally
considered that during the Pleistocene period either
the kulan or the onager (for it is impossible to
distinguish between them in the fossil state) ranged
into Central and Western Europe. Dr. Nehring,1
indeed, believed that all the remains of small equines
from France and Germany were referable to these
animals ; but Prof. M. Boule,2 while admitting the
occurrence of the onager in Western Europe, refers,
as will be more fully noticed in the sequel, the
majority of such remains to the ass.
1 op. tit., p. 187.
* Annales de Paltontologie, vol. v. p. 132, 1910.
CHAPTER VIII
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS
AFRICA south of the northern tropic, that is to say,
the Ethiopian Africa of naturalists, is the home of
a group of more or less fully striped members of
the horse-family, commonly known as zebras and
quaggas. As to the derivation of the latter name
there is no sort of doubt, quagga being the Dutch
corruption of the Hottentot title — qua-cha — of one
of the southern species, which is taken from the
animal's cry. With regard to the origin of. the
name zebra, there is a difference of opinion. In
one dictionary x it is stated, for instance, that the
name comes from the Hebrew tzebi, meaning
splendour or beauty, and connected with the verb
tzdbd, to shine, and the equivalent of the Arabic
zib, beauty. An old writer, Job Ludolphus, in his
Historia sEthiopica, published at Frankfort-on-
Maine in 1681, states2 that these animals are called
zecora in Abyssinia and zebra on the Congo ;
while Colonel Hamilton Smith3 shows that zebra
" seems to be the Negro mutation of the Abyssinian
1 Ogilvie's Student's English Dictionary, London, 1865.
2 Book i. chap. x.
3 Naturalisfs Library, Horses, ?nd ed. p. 321.
l«87
i88 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
zeuru of Lobo and the Galla zeora or zecora,
according to Ludolphus."
To the Greeks and Romans zebras were known
as hippo tigris, a word meaning horse-tiger, although
in Liddell and Scott's lexicon it is translated "large-
tiger," from a mistaken idea that it is analogous
in meaning to such words as horse-chestnut and
horse-radish.
There is evidence that one at least of these
hippotigres was exhibited in the Roman amphi-
theatre, by Caracalla ; l and there is little doubt
that this belonged to the species now known as
Grevy's zebra, which is therefore not only the true
hippotigris, but likewise the true zebra, although
the latter designation is now applied to the South
African species. In early days these zebras were
considered royal gifts by the Abyssinian emperors,
and it is stated by Mr. H. Scherren 2 that some were
sent by King Assaghedus to the Governor of the
Dutch East India Company at Batavia, by whom
they were presented to the Emperor of Japan.
" News of these facts was sent to Ludolphus by
Emanuel Nawendorff, a native of Altenburg resident
in Batavia. In return the Emperor sent 10,000 silver
taels and thirty Japanese dresses, so that, as this
correspondent of Ludolphus says, they were amply
paid for. And the latter notes that these animals
might be sent by sea if they would only bear the
1 Hamilton Smith, op. tit., pp. 320-21.
2 The Field, vol. cv. p. 375, 1904.
PLATE XVI
FIG. i
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 189
cold. Not only were these animals royal gifts at
the time Ludolphus wrote, but before then at least
one specimen had reached Europe alive. This
statement rests on the authority of a French author,
who saw the animal at Constantinople. He says
that among other gifts brought by the Abyssinian
envoy to the Grand Seigneur was an ass with a
very beautiful skin, if indeed it were natural. This,
however, he declined to vouch for, not having
examined the animal. But he noted the more than
ass-like size, the large head, long ears, and the
regularity of the stripes ' of the breadth of a finger,'
though he called the dark stripes chestnut-brown
instead of black. . . . The Abyssinian envoy started
with three zebras as gifts for the Turkish ruler ; two,
however, died by the way. These were flayed, and
he brought the skins with him and presented them
to the Grand Seigneur with the living specimen."
All the zebras and quaggas were separated from
the genus Equus by Colonel Hamilton Smith to
form a genus by themselves, for which he revived
the classic name Hippotigris. There is no sufficient
justification for this, as all the members of the group
are closely allied to the other living E guides ; and,
what is of even more importance, exhibit consider-
able differences among themselves.
As already mentioned, all the members of the
group are confined at the present day to Ethiopian
Africa ; and there is no sufficient evidence that
I9o THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
they ever ranged beyond it, although it may be
quite possible that some of the earlier extinct repre-
sentatives of the family were striped. It is true,
indeed, that certain prehistoric sketches from various
districts in France have been supposed to represent
zebras, for which one writer has even gone so far
as to propose the name Equus maculatus. Pro-
fessor Boule * (in whose memoir fuller details on
this point will be found) has, however, pointed out
that the evidence is by no means conclusive, and
the representations of these so-called zebras may
be explained in three different ways. On one
hypothesis the zebra-like markings are merely
strokes employed by the artist to accentuate and
beautify his sketches. A second theory supposes
that all fossil horses, whether of the caballus, the
zebra, or the extinct stenonis type, were striped.
According to a third supposition it may be sur-
mised that true zebras existed in Europe during
the Pleistocene period, but that it has not been
found possible to distinguish their teeth and bones
from those of horses, onagers, and asses.
Professor Boule,2 who is in favour of the first
hypothesis, believes zebras to have taken origin
from the extinct Steno's horse (E. stenonis) of the
European Pliocene.
The aforesaid Gravy's zebra (Equus grevyi,
1 Annales de Paleontologie^ vol. v. p. 133, 1910.
2 Bull. Soc. GeoL de France, ser. 3, vol. xxvii. p. 537, 1899.
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 191
pi. xvi.), of Abyssinia and Somaliland, is the largest
and in some respects the most horse-like of the
entire group, from the other members of which it
differs markedly in the width and arrangement of
the stripes, as it also does in the circumstance that
the chestnuts on the inner sides of the fore-legs
are as small as in the horse ; while, as in that
species, the mane extends on to the withers and
the tail-tuft is large and full. The large, broad,
and thickly-haired ears are quite different from
those of all other members of the family, which
are narrow and pointed. As regards the dark
brown or black markings and the intervening light
stripes on the body, head, and limbs, these are for the
most part very narrow, widening out only on the
lower jaw, neck, and the lower part of the thighs.
On the flanks none of the stripes bend backwards
and upwards to extend on to the hind-quarters,
the upper portion of which is marked with vertical
stripes arranged concentrically round the root of
the tail. The dorsal stripe is very broad, especially
near the middle of the back ; and there are no
transverse stripes on the under-parts. The stripes
on the nose practically stop short of the dark
nostril-patches, and the nose itself is greyish. It
is thus evident that the stripes on the rump have
their concavity directed upwards, whereas in the
bontequagga the convexity is upwards.
A remarkable feature of this species is the
192 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
presence in the newly-born foal of a thick crest of
long hairs, mostly rusty brown in colour, extending
backwards from the withers along the back and
tail to the terminal tuft of the latter, so as to form
a continuation of the mane. If, as has been sug-
gested, the colour-pattern of Gre'vy's zebra is the
most primitive in the whole group, it may be that
the spinal crest of the foal is likewise a remnant
of an ancestral feature.
The large size of the ears and the narrowness
of the stripes in this species are not improbably
connected with a life spent partially in thick scrub ;
large ears being very commonly present in forest-
dwelling animals, while narrow, vertically disposed
stripes appear to be an adaptation for conceal-
ment in jungle.
Gre'vy's zebra, which stands about 13 hands in
height, is divisible into two races. In the typical
race, from the highlands of the Shoa district of
Abyssinia, the dark stripes are black and the light
ones white ; but in the Somali race (£. grevyi ber-
berensis), which is restricted to the western districts
of Somaliland, the dark stripes are chocolate-brown,
and the intervening bands ochery, so that the con-
trast between the two is much less strongly marked
than in the Abyssinian animal. Indeed Mr. Drake-
Brockman,1 who incorrectly refers to it as a small
zebra with broad stripes, states that the Somali
1 The Mammals of Somaliland, London, 1910, p. 105.
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 193
race, when seen at a distance, looks like a black
pony. He adds that " GreVy's zebra seems to
prefer undulating, rocky, bush-country to any other.
It is invariably seen in small troops often or twelve
individuals. The older males are generally covered
with scars, showing them to be very pugnacious.
While hunting through the dense bush in localities
where they are known to be, they are soon found,
as they are very noisy." They are commoner in
the Ogaden district of Western Somaliland, but of
late years have been greatly reduced in numbers.
Colonel Swayne,1 after mentioning that these
zebras are found in Somaliland on stony country,
covered with scattered bush, and intersected with
ravines, at an elevation of about 2500 feet, states
that those which he saw " were met with in small
droves of about half-a-dozen, on low plateaux covered
with scattered thorn-bush and durr grass, the soil
being powdery, and red in colour, with an occasional
outcrop of rocks. In such country they are easy
to stalk, and I should never have fired at them for
sport alone. I saw none in the open flats of the
Webbe valley, and they never come nearly so far
north as the open grass-plains of the Haud ; Durhi,
south of Fafan, being, I think, their northern limit.
The young have longer coats, and the stripes are
rather lighter brown, turning later on to a deep
chocolate, which is nearly black in adult animals."
1 Seventeen Trips through Somaliland^ London, 1900, p. 321.
N
194 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
A very different animal to the last is the
quagga (Equus quagga, pi. xvii. fig. i ), which formerly
swarmed on the plains of Cape Colony, from which,
it has long since been swept away by the Boers,
by whom it was shot at first as food for their
Hottentot servants, and later on for the sake
of its hide. Together with the remaining mem-
bers of the striped group, the quagga has the
chestnuts on the fore-legs larger than in Gravy's
zebra, and the stripes broader. In this sub-group,
whenever the hind -quarters are striped, the
stripes are obliquely longitudinal, with the upper-
most ones arising from the posterior region of
the body, where their upper extremities are bent
backwards towards the root of the tail in such a
manner that there is no concentric arrangement
round the latter. The muzzle is dark, and usually
black, and the stripes on the nose are continuous
with the dark patches round the nostrils. The ears
are narrow, and always tipped with white.
In the quagga itself, which was confined to the
plains south of the Orange River, the ears are com-
paratively small, the front hoofs are rather large,
and a complete system of striping is retained only
on the head, neck, and front half of the body,
although some examples appear to have had spots
farther back, indicating the remnants of stripes.
Such stripes as remain on the body do not extend
across the under surface to meet their fellows of the
FIG. 2
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 195
opposite side ; the general ground-colour appears to
have been yellowish red or chestnut, but the legs
are much lighter, as is also the belly. The older
African hunters, like Sir Cornwallis Harris, appear
to have been convinced of the existence of more
than one local form of quagga in Cape Colony and
the adjacent districts ; and the last survivor in cap-
tivity of these animals, which lived in the London
Zoological Gardens from 1858 till 1864, whose
portrait is given here, has been made the type of a
separate race, under the name of E. quagga greyi.
Names have also been proposed for other supposed
races, but these it will be unnecessary to quote.1
When the Boers first trekked north of the
Orange River they met, on the plains of what
is now the British Bechuanaland Protectorate, an
animal which they recognised as near akin to their
familiar quagga, but distinguished by its brighter
colouring and the extension of the striping on to
the hind half of the body, including the buttocks.
To this they gave the name bontequagga, signify-
ing painted or striped quagga. When the true
quagga disappeared from the country south of
the Orange River and became more or less com-
pletely forgotten, the prefix bonte was dropped,
and the northern animal took the name of its
southern cousin. In the year 1825 a skin of the
bontequagga brought to England by the traveller
1 See Pocock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. xiv. p. 313, 1904.
196 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Burchell was described under the name of Eqmis
bur c he Hi ; the English name of the animal then
becoming Burchell's zebra, a title which it is now
convenient to replace by the Boer name.
As Central and Eastern Africa was gradually
opened up to European civilisation various other
animals akin to the bontequagga were discovered,
and in several instances received distinct names.
The range of these extended in one direction as
far north as Abyssinia, and in another as far west
as Damaraland. As we proceed north from Bechu-
analand, the home of the typical bontequagga,
it will be found that the representatives of that
animal gradually show the extension of dark stripes
on to the legs, till in the most northern forms
these are striped down to the hoof, and likewise
the disappearance of what are known as shadow-
stripes, that is to say, faint tawny streaks running
down the middle lines of the light stripes. In spite
of the great difference in these respects between
the extreme northern and southern forms, it is
quite evident that all of them are nothing more
than local races of the bontequagga. Indeed, they
have been regarded as nothing more than local
races of the quagga, from which, however, it is
convenient to separate all its relatives north of
the Orange River, in which the hind half of the
body is striped, as a distinct species.
In regard to the presence or absence of striping
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 197
on the legs, it is curious to note that the bontequagga
presents a condition precisely the reverse of that
which occurs in the case of the giraffe ; the southern
races of the former having white, unstriped legs,
whereas it is the northern forms of the latter in
which the lower portion of the limbs is white and
unspotted.
The typical bontequagga,1 now nearly or entirely
extinct in the wild state, stands about 12 hands
at the shoulder, and has the ground-colour orange,
and the shadow-stripes on the hind-quarters strongly
marked, and narrower than the main stripes, which
are themselves broader than the light interspaces
containing the shadow-stripes. The hind-quarters
have only a few short stripes below the long
stripe running to the root of the tail ; the body-
stripes stop short on the sides of the under-parts,
so as to be widely separated from the longitudinal
ventral stripe ; and, with the occasional exception
of a few on the knees and hocks, the legs are
devoid of stripes, as are usually the sides of the
tail. Nearly allied is the Damara E. b. antiquorum,
in which stripes occur on the legs above the
knees and hocks, but none, or at most a few,
below them. Zululand is the home of a race,
E. b. wahlbergi, in which, like all those which
follow, the body-stripes meet the ventral stripe
inferiorly, while the legs are more or less fully
1 See Pocock, Proc. ZooL Soc. London, 1909, p. 415, fig. 48.
198 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
striped. In this particular race1 the shadow-stripes
on the hind-quarters are strongly developed, and
not much narrower than the main stripes, which
are narrower than the intervening spaces ; and the
fetlocks and pasterns are devoid of stripes or spots.
In the Matabili E. b. chapmani (pi. xvii. fig. 2) the
shadow-stripes have become faint and narrow, the
legs are barred to the hoofs, but the stripes on their
lower portions tend to break up into spots, and the
inferior part of the pasterns is not wholly black.
This race inhabits the country between Damaraland
and Matabililand. The last representative of the
species in which shadow-stripes are distinctly de-
veloped is the Mashona E. b. selousi, which differs
from the last in that the barring of the legs is
complete down to the hoofs ; the pasterns being
striped on both sides, and their lower part, owing
to the fusion of several stripes, wholly black.
The sides of the tail are also striped.
On the north side of the Zambesi the species
is first represented by E. c. boehmi($\. xviii. fig. i),
typically from the plains around Kilimanjaro, which
appears to connect E. b. selousi'2' with the more
northern races, retaining slight traces of shadow-
stripes, which in many cases are visible only on
the hind-quarters, and having the bars on the
pasterns distinct from one another.
1 See Pocock, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1909, p. 416, fig. 49.
2 Mr. J. Roux, Rfoue Suisse de Zoologie, vol. xviii. p. 924, 1910,
considers selousi inseparable from boehmi.
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 199
Closely allied to the Kilimanjaro race, and
perhaps really intergrading with it, is the bonte-
quagga of British East Africa, which has been
named E. 6. granti (pi. xviii. fig. 2), and may be
known in English as the Masai race.
In this race, as well as in the nearly allied
E. b. crawshayi of Southern Nyasaland (British
Central Africa) and in E. b. jallce of Southern
Abyssinia, the shadow-stripes have completely
vanished, and the principal stripes on the hind-
quarters are at least equal in width to the inter-
vening spaces, which are white. In crawshayi the
dark stripes are relatively narrow and of a full
black, the nostril-patches are yellowish brown,
or tan-colour, and the pasterns are marked like
those of selousi. On the other hand, in the British
East African granti, the stripes are broader and
in some cases less completely black, and the bars
on the pasterns are fused into a continuous black
band. In the South Abyssinian E. b. jallce there
is said to be a difference in the number of the
stripes, as compared with granti, but the difference
is considered by Mr. Roux 1 to be merely individual.
Apparently related to crawshayi is a bontequagga
from North-eastern Rhodesia (E. b. annectans),
characterised by the great excess in width of the
dark over the light stripes. In this place it may
be mentioned that some bontequaggas from British
*. Op. tit., p. 924.
200 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
East Africa, which appear to represent a variety
of boehmi, show a kind of ' ' gridiron-pattern " on
the upper surface of the hind-quarters, which at
first sight seems to recall the more distinct gridiron
of the typical zebra. In these East African
bontequaggas the middle spinal stripe is, however,
completely isolated throughout its length, and the
semblance of a gridiron-pattern is due to the partial
breaking up and fusion of the uppermost pair of
long oblique stripes traversing the quarters.
In certain bontequaggas from the Gwasengishu
plateau of British East Africa, the forelock is
entirely wanting, and the mane, except for a small
tuft in advance of the withers, is reduced to the
same condition as in a hog-maned polo-pony, thereby
presenting a peculiar appearance, quite different
from that of an ordinary bontequagga or zebra.
The backs of the ears are almost wholly white.
A similar peculiarity is observable in a bontequagga
skin from the Lake Mweru district in the British
Museum, and, according to Mr. Selous, the same
feature characterises all the bontequaggas of the
Gwasengishu district, at any rate during the season
of the year when they came under his observation.
These belong to the Masai race (granti), which
was originally described from the Athi plains of
East Africa. Some at least of the Athi zebras
appear to have very little mane, but their ears have
dark markings. On the other hand, a specimen
PLATE XVIII
FIG. ix
FIG. 2
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 201
figured by Dr. Sclater in the Zoological Society's
Proceedings for 1911 (reproduced in pi. xviii. fig. 2)
is represented with a full and bushy mane and
forelock. In this respect it resembles the closely-
allied Kilimanjaro race. Whether the absence of
the mane and forelock in the Gwasengishu indi-
viduals is a seasonal or a permanent feature can,
of course, be definitely determined only by observa-
tions made at different times or year. The fact
that no complete seasonal shedding and loss of
the mane has been recorded in the case of specimens
of the more southern races of bontequagga kept
in menageries renders it almost certain that the
feature is permanent. Assuming this to be the
case, it is noteworthy that the Masai bontequagga is
one of the most northern representatives of its
kind, and that within the limits of the range of that
race the tendency to the loss of mane and the
acquisition of almost completely white backs to
the ears attains its full development only in the
more northern districts. In the domesticated horse
it is ascertained that no seasonal shedding of
the hairs of the mane and tail takes place, and
that for the most part these continue to grow
throughout life.
In 1911 a curious " sport" was recorded among
a few of the Masai bontequaggas inhabiting the
Nakura district of British East Africa. These
bontequaggas, which have unfortunately received
202 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
a distinct name (goldfinchi^\ are characterised by
the presence of a fawn-coloured unstriped area
immediately in front of the large oblique stripes on1
the quarters. As only two or three individuals
showing this peculiarity are seen among the herds
of ordinary granti, it is quite clear that the feature,
as I have pointed out in Nature? is merely a sport.
A nearly white example of Grant's or one of the
allied races is exhibited in the Tring Museum, and
there is an albino GreVy's zebra in the Natural
History Museum.
Much confusion has arisen from the description
of a so-called Ward's zebra, which Mr. R. I. Pocock3
has shown to be almost certainly based on a
hybrid between the typical zebra and one of the
bontequaggas, probably chapmanL
Quaggas and bontequaggas are essentially
animals of the plains, on which they congregated
in large herds, frequently associating with ostriches
and gnus ; the species of the latter group herding
with the true quagga being the white-tailed gnu,
while to the north of the Orange River its place
was taken by the brindled gnu. In 1837 Sir
Cornwallis Harris encountered enormous herds
of quaggas on the plains south of the Vaal River,
but even at that date they seem to have become
scarce in Cape Colony. As to the exact date of their
1 Ridgeway, Nature, vol. Ixxxvi. p. 245, 1911.
2 Ibid.) p. 281. 3 The Field, vol. cxiv. p. 389, 1909.
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 203
extermination, there is some uncertainty, but Mr.
H. A. Bryden believes that they lingered in the
more remote districts of Cape Colony till some time
between 1865 and 1870, and a little later in the
Orange River Colony. Their range originally
included Cape Colony, the Orange River Colony,
and part of Griqualand West.
Of the beauty of the southern bontequagga,
or Burchell's zebra, on the veldt to the north of the
Orange River, Mr. Bryden1 writes in the following
enthusiastic terms : —
" With its clean, sleek coat, shining in the sun-
light like a well-groomed horse's, its flowing tail,
rich colouring, graceful mane, perfectly hogged by
nature, and beautiful head, it forms a noble picture,
framed in its usual setting of grassy plain, or park-
like, open bush-veldt. Often when in pursuit, at
a signal from the big stallion bringing up the rear,
I have seen the flying troop suddenly wheel round
in line, and stand with heads up, ears pricked, and
distended nostrils, to stare for a full half-minute
at their disturbers. Then, with curvets, prancings,
and whirling tails, away again they scour, perfect
types of feral beauty. Not seldom you may see
them with their constant allies the brindled gnus ;
with perhaps a troop of ostriches to fill up the
company."
This association of three totally different kinds
1 Nature and Sport in South Africa^ London, 1897, p. 177.
204 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
of animals may, it has been suggested, be of mutual
advantage to each ; for ostriches, by reason of their
tall stature and elevated heads, would be enabled to
detect the advance of an enemy by sight long
before it was visible to the other members of the
trio, while the latter would be warned by scent
much sooner than the ostriches. When the
members of one of the species started to run, the
others would be pretty sure to follow suit. The
quagga was reputed to be possessed of great
courage, and at the time of its abundance is stated
to have been kept on the Boer farms in Cape
Colony for the purpose of driving off hyaenas and
wild dogs.
Both quaggas and bontequaggas have been
broken to harness and driven ; but the latter, at
any rate, have been said to be deficient in staying
power. On the other hand, in the issue of the
Agricultural Journal £>{ the Union of South Africa
for August 1911 it is stated that in Zululand the
evidence afforded by a team of eight bontequaggas, or
zebras, as they are called in the report, leads to the
conclusion that these animals are of great value
for transport purposes on account of their immunity
to disease. "They respond quickly to the whip
when pulling, they are not given to plunging, but
crouch down and pull steadily ; they keep their
condition without corn-feeding, and they appear
more intelligent than mules or donkeys. Against
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 205
those qualities may be quoted the lack of stamina,
which was disclosed when working in the sandy
veldt ; but this, I think, was mainly due to a want of
corn-feeding, for it seems barely possible for it to
be a characteristic failing of the species, as they are
of muscular build, although light-boned."
In this place it will be convenient to refer to
modern views with regard to the object of the
peculiar type of colouring presented by quaggas,
bontequaggas, and zebras. In all the fully-striped
members of the group it is commonly believed by
naturalists that the general effect of this type of
colouring is to render the animal in which it occurs
inconspicuous at a distance on open places, at close
quarters in moonlight or at dusk, and amid bush-
jungle. Such effects are due in part to the alter-
nate dark and light stripes harmonising with the
shafts and streaks of sunlit falling on foliage, and
in part to the stripes on the body and limbs break-
ing up the general hard outline of the animal into
a more or less indistinct, soft greyish blur. This,
however, is not all, for it has been shown by Mr.
R. I. Pocock1 that the arrangement of the striping
in these animals is specially designed to give the
utmost intensity to this breaking-up effect. ' As
is well shown in some of the accompanying illus-
trations, the arrangement of the striping in the
more northerly races of the bontequagga divides
1 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1909, p. 418.
206 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the body into two distinct areas ; the stripes on the
front half taking a more or less nearly vertical
direction, while those on the quarters display a
general longitudinal trend. The optical effect of
this is to divide the animal into two distinct objects
when viewed from a certain distance, so that the
complete horse-outline becomes more or less com-
pletely obscured and obliterated. This effect is
enhanced by the stripes at the base of the neck
being wider than those on the shoulder, to which
they are inclined at an angle when the head is
carried in the usual pose. A further effect in
breaking up the outline of the animal is produced
by the circumstance that the stripes on the face
are narrower than those on the neck and likewise
somewhat different in direction, and also by the
transverse direction of the bars on the legs. The
head and body of a bontequagga are thus broken
up by the nature and direction of the stripes into
four more or less distinct and separate areas,
namely the head, the neck, and the fore and the
hind parts of the trunk. At a distance less than
that at which the whole of the stripes melt into a
confused grey blur, the general effect is to render
the animal much less conspicuous than would be
the case if the stripes were of the same width
throughout, and took the same direction on all
parts of the skin.
There is yet another point in connection with
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 207
the colour-pattern of the animals under considera-
tion. In the zebra, Gravy's zebra, and the more
northern races of the bontequagga the legs are
striped right down to the hoofs, while in the last-
mentioned animals the stripes extend downwards
to meet the longitudinal belly-stripes. Now all
these animals inhabit more or less broken or bush-
covered country. On the other hand, the quagga
and the typical southern race of the bontequagga
inhabited the open South African plains, and in
these the legs are lighter coloured than the body,
while in some forms of the quagga and in the
southern bontequaggas the whole of the under-parts
and much of the buttocks are likewise white.
Moreover, in the latter the black stripes of the
northern bontequaggas are toned down to brown
and faint orange shadow-stripes intercalated.
Here, in fact, a totally different kind of colour-pro-
tection comes into play ; namely, one common to a
large number of herbivorous animals living on open
plains, and already referred to in connection with
the kiang and onager. In this type of colouring
the under surface of the body and the limbs are
conspicuously lighter (often white) than the upper
parts, so that when the animal is standing in bright
sunlight the light colouring of the lower surface
completely counteracts the effect of the dark shade
cast by the body, and thus produces more or less
complete invisibility. Much the same effect is
208 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
produced when the animal is lying down, by the
white legs being tucked away along the sides of the
white belly. The absence of striping on the hind
half of the body and limbs of the quagga and
southern bontequagga thus appears to be an ac-
quired character developed for the special purpose
of rendering these animals inconspicuous on the
sun-scorched and trackless veldt and karru which
form their home.
On the other hand, many naturalist-sportsmen
like Mr. Selous, Captain Stigand, and Mr.
Roosevelt, who have seen zebras and bontequaggas
in their native haunts, emphatically refuse to be-
lieve in the theory of the protective nature of their
colouring. Mr. Roosevelt,1 for instance, expresses
himself as follows on this subject : —
" The zebra has also, very absurdly, been taken
as an example of 'concealing coloration.' ... As
a matter of fact, it is not concealing, it is highly
advertising, when close at hand ; but when over
three or four hundred yards off the black and white
stripes merge together, and the coat becomes mono-
coloured, but catches the sunlight in such shape
as still to render the bearer conspicuous. The
narrow stripes of the big Grevy's zebra fade
together at a shorter distance than is the case with
the broader stripes of the smaller zebra ; the broad
1 " Revealing and Concealing Coloration of Birds and Mammals,"
Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xxx. p. 191, 1911.
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 209
bands on the rump of the latter can be seen at a
great distance. The zebra [i.e. bontequagga] is
purely a beast of the open plains ; it never seeks to
conceal itself, but trusts always to seeing its foes.
When under or among thin-leaved, scattered
thorn-trees it is still usually conspicuous ; although
now and then a peculiar light and shadow effect
may conceal it."
After quoting evidence from Captain Stigand1
to much the same effect, Mr. Roosevelt proceeds
to express his disbelief in the protective value of
the white bellies of kiangs, onagers, and wild asses ;
attributing this to some general cause, like that
which has led to the under surface of the leaves of
so many plants being lighter coloured than the
upper ones.
The " personal equation" has, of course, some-
thing to do with the difference of opinion on these
facts ; but whatever may be the real truth with
regard to some of the disputed points, it is certain
that when a zebra enters covert, it becomes, owing
to its colouring, indistinguishable.
In 1899 a zebra or bontequagga inhabiting the
mountainous country opposite Teti, on the north
bank of the lower part of the Zambesi, was de-
scribed as a distinct species by Messrs. Prazak and
Trouessart in the 'Bulletin du Museum d'Histoire
Nature lie, Paris, vol. v. p. 350, as Equusfoai. From
1 The Game of British East Africa, London, 1909.
O
2io THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the races of the bontequagga this zebra (pi. xix.
fig. i) is distinguished by the larger number of main
stripes on the body and hind-quarters, and also by
the absence of any backward bending (except in the
last of the series) of the stripes on the middle of
the body (about ten in number) as they approach the
dorsal stripe, to which they run approximately at
right angles. In this respect Foa's zebra approxi-
mates to the zebra and Gravy's zebra, from both
of which it differs by the stripes on the hind-
quarters adjacent to the dorsal stripe running
parallel with the latter in the direction of the tail,
as in the bontequagga, instead of at right angles.
Consequently, the gridiron-pattern of the true
zebra, and the concentric stripe arrangement of
Gravy's zebra in this region are wanting. In the
general build, as well as in the shape of the head and
ears, Foa's zebra is nearer to the bontequagga than
to either of the other two species ; this being borne
out by the fact that the body-stripes meet the stripe
traversing the middle line of the under surface.
The legs are barred to the fetlocks, and the pasterns
black. By Mr. Pocock l Foa's zebra is regarded as
related to the Nyasa bontequagga, E. b. crawshayi.
The marked difference between the markings of
Foa's zebra and the Masai bontequagga is well
exhibited in plate xix.
Although, as mentioned above, the title of typical
1 Harmsworth Natural History ', p. 789.
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 211
or true zebra properly belongs to Gravy's zebra of
Abyssinia and Somaliland, it is applied by natura-
lists to the species inhabiting the mountains of Cape
Colony, the Equus zebra of Linnaeus and the wilde-
paard ( = wild horse) of the Boers. From the other
members of the striped group this species (pi. xx.
fig. i) is distinguishable at a glance by its more ass-
like appearance — especially the relatively great
length of the narrow ears — and the full development
of a gridiron-like pattern of transverse stripes on
the hind-quarters above the tail. The stripes are
white on a black ground. In addition to these
features, the species is characterised by the hairs
on the middle of the back, from the withers to
the rump, being directed forwards instead of
backwards. The tail-tuft is less developed than
in other species, and the hoofs are narrower.
With the exception of those of the hind-quarters,
which on the sides are very broad and separated
by light intervals of approximately similar width,
the transverse stripes on the body are narrow and
closely set, and all of them stop short of the
middle line of the belly, so as to leave a white space
on each side of the longitudinal ventral stripe.
The corresponding dorsal stripe is very narrow,
and connected with the transverse stripes, most of
which run nearly at right angles to this line,
although the last two, which are much broader
than the rest, are bent sharply backwards, so as
212 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
to cause the uppermost one on each side to
form the lateral border of the aforesaid gridiron.
Although some of the northern races of the bonte-
quagga show traces of this gridiron, it is never
so strongly developed as in the present species.
All the limbs are barred down to the hoofs, and the
chestnuts on the front pair are larger than in any
other existing member of the horse family. The
throat is also peculiar in having a small dewlap,
and there is a considerable amount of tan-colour on
the muzzle. In height the zebra apparently stands
about n^ hands ; although many of the old writers
put the stature considerably higher, as they do in
the case of the bontequagga.
Although the zebra is essentially a mountain
animal, inhabiting the very summits of the ranges
.of Cape Colony, while the quagga was a denizen
of the surrounding plains, this difference in habits
was unknown to Linnaeus, who regarded the latter
as the female of the former, and therefore did not
give it a distinct scientific name. Formerly the
zebra, or mountain zebra, as it is sometimes called,
seems to have inhabited all the mountain ranges of
Cape Colony, where its former presence is indicated
by such names as Paarde Berg, Paarde Kraal, and
Paarde Fontein ; and about the year 1892 a few
herds survived, under Government protection, on
the Zwartberg, Sneeuberg, and Winterhoeck ranges,
and some still remain in a wild state in the Cradock
ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 213
district. Others, in a half-domesticated state, run
on some of the Boer farms, where, as mentioned
later, they occasionally breed with the asses.
The zebra is an adept in getting over rough
and rocky ground ; the course of the herds being
stopped only by absolutely unclimbable precipices.
In other respects its habits seem to be very similar
to those of its kindred, although there seems to be
no evidence of its habitually consorting with animals
of totally distinct kinds. The following picturesque
description of an encounter with a troop of zebras
is given by Mr. H. Bryden i1 —
" In company with a Kafir hunter I came
suddenly upon a small troop guarded by a sentinel
— an old stallion. They were a magnificent
spectacle, far up in a precipitous piece of savage
mountain scenery. We had a long look at them,
at two hundred and fifty yards' distance, and then
suddenly the stallion got our wind or espied us, a
wild neigh of alarm was given, and the troop, with
tails whisking, tore headlong over the mountain
and quickly disappeared."
Whither the daow or dauw of the Hottentots
was the zebra or the quagga seems doubtful, and
the name may have been applied to both animals.
By some writers it is given as the designation of
the southern race of the bontequagga.
The range of the zebra is, however, by no
1 Nature and Sport in South Africa, p. 164.
214 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
means restricted to the mountains of Cape Colony,
for in 1898 Professor P. Matschie1 described, under
the name of Hippotigris hartmanncz, a zebra from
the Kaokofeld, between the Hoanib and Unilab
rivers, in Damaraland, which is certainly nothing
more than a local race of the present species. It
is true that in the original description the Damara
zebra was stated to have fewer stripes on the fore-
head than the Cape animal, but this feature has
been subsequently found to be inconstant, as has
likewise the presence of a pale band on the thigh.2
On the other hand, the Damara zebra seems to be
characterised by the chocolate-colour of the dark
stripes, and by the light intervals being tawny in-
stead of white. The Damara zebra may, therefore,
be known as E. zebra hartmanna.
Two years after the publication of the descrip-
tion of the Damara race Mr. O. Thomas 3 proposed
the name of Equus penricei for a zebra typified by
an animal shot by Mr. Penrice at Providencia,
about seventy kilometres to the north-east of
Mossamedes, in Southern Angola. That this animal
is nothing more than a local race of E. zebra seems
certain, and at present there is no sufficient evidence
of its right to distinction from the race described by
Professor Matschie.
1 Sitz. Ber. Ges. Naturfor. Freunde, Berlin, 1898, p. 175.
8 See W. L. Sclater, Fauna of S. Africa — Mammals^ vol. i. p.
286.
3 Ann. Mag. Nat. History^ ser. 7, vol. vi. p. 465, 1900.
PLATE XX
FIG. i
FIG. 2
CHAPTER IX
THE ASS
ALTHOUGH at first sight there does not seem to be
much connection between onos, the Greek, and
asinus, the Latin name of the ass, yet both are
believed to be derived from a Semitic word akin to
athon, the Hebrew term for she-ass. The mode of
derivation of the Greek word, which may have been
originally asnos or osnos, is supposed to have taken
place by the elimination of the s, the equivalent of
the Hebrew dental th, before the n.1 The Anglo-
Saxon asset, and the German esel are, of course,
modifications of the same word. On the other hand,
the Persian khar would seem to be from a totally
different root ; this word, as already mentioned,
occurs in ghor-khar, the Persian name of the onager,
and, like the latter, signifying wild ass, and also in
khargush (literally asses' ears), the Persian and
Hindustani term for the hare. " Donkey," it may
be added, is a late nickname for the ass, said to be
derived from its colour, and supposed to be the
equivalent of dun, with the addition of the diminutive
kin. If this be so, the names donkey and dunlin
1 See Heyn and Stallybrass, Wanderings of Plants and Animals,
London, 1835, p. 460.
215
216 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
(the well-known shore-bird) are identical in origin,
but it may be pointed out that the colour of the ass
is grey, and not dun.
From the reputed Eastern origin of the West
European names of the ass, it has been very gener-
ally considered that the animal itself, in its domesti-
cated condition, is likewise of Eastern origin, and
that it reached Europe by way of Asia Minor and
Syria, although its original home may have been
North-western Africa, where true wild asses are
alone found at the present day.1 Without denying
that such a view may be true, it has to be borne in
mind that Professor Marcellin Boule 2 is convinced
that certain remains of small and slenderly built
equines from the cavern and other superficial de-
posits of France and Italy pertain to the ass, as
distinct from the onager, whose remains are also
found in the same formations. How he distinguishes
the ass from the onager on the evidence of fossil
bones and teeth alone is not clearly stated ; but if
his conclusions be trustworthy, there would seem to
be a possibility of the first domestication of the ass
having taken place in Southern Europe. On the
other hand, it appears that in Homeric times the ass
had not become a common domesticated animal,
as it is mentioned but once in the Iliad, and then
in a simile believed to have been inserted by a later
1 See Heyn and Stallybrass, op. tit., p. 10.
2 Annales de Pattontologie, vol. v. p. 116, 1910.
THE ASS 217
poet. In the Odyssey the ass is not referred to at all,
neither does its name occur in the works of Hesiod.
Nevertheless, even if domesticated asses were
introduced into Europe from the East, it is probable
that the wild animal was first tamed in the Mediter-
ranean countries, as we have no evidence that it
ever existed to the eastward of the Red Sea. If
this view be correct, asses must have reached India
from the westward ; this being the opinion of
Darwin,1 who unhesitatingly regards all the domes-
ticated breeds as the descendants of the North
African wild animal.
Although Linnaeus based his Equus asinus on
the domesticated ass of Europe, we cannot take any
particular breed or strain as the actual type of the
species, since Sweden has none of its own. As a
matter of fact, the ass is essentially a southern
animal, partial to hot and dry countries, and exceed-
ingly averse to enter water. Indeed, it has been
stated that " the ass, and with it its name, accom-
panied the progress of the culture of the vine and
olive to the north, not crossing the limits of that
culture. In proportion as the ure-ox, the bison, and
the elk died out, the long-eared foreign beast became
domesticated in Gaul, receiving various names, and
living in the customs, jokes, proverbs, and fables
of the people. Germany, however, proved too cold
for the animal." 2
1 Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. i. p. 65.
2 Heyn and Stallybrass, op. «'/., p. in.
218 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
As already mentioned, the ass is nearly related
to the true zebra of Southern and South-western
Africa, with which it agrees in general form, in the .
shape of the head, in the length of the ears,
and in the narrowness of the hoofs. With the ex-
ception that one (or occasionally a pair) is very
generally retained on the shoulders, and that
barring frequently persists on the legs, the ass has,
however, lost the stripes of its southern cousin,
evidently in adaptation to a life on desert plains.
In the frequent retention of barring on the legs
the species presents a remarkable contrast to the
quagga and the southern races of the bontequagga,
whose colouring has also been modified in accord-
ance with the requirements of a very similar mode
of life, but in which the leg-barring has been the
first of the dark markings to disappear.
In contrast to the chestnut or sandy tint
characteristic of the Asiatic kiang and onager, the
general colour of the wild ass is grey ; but this is
most marked in summer, when the coat is clear
French grey, whereas in winter, when it is also
slightly longer, it becomes sandy grey. The muzzle
is white, with the lips ashy, and a ring round each
eye, the under-parts, and generally the limbs, are
likewise white. The mane and tail-tuft are blackish,
as are also the dorsal stripe, the shoulder-stripe, and
the barrings on the legs, when these are retained.
In domesticated breeds the colour ranges from
THE ASS 219
black through grey to white ; but in all cases the
belly, like the muzzle, remains white, showing how
deeply-rooted a feature is this element in the desert
type of colouring.
Such European domesticated asses as retain
some approximation to the colouring of their wild
relatives have the legs, which are often barred with
black, in most cases scarcely, if at all, lighter than
the body. They are also characterised by the
presence in nearly every case of a large brown or
blackish patch at the base of the outer surface of
the ear ; these patches being also present in the
domesticated asses of Socotra, which have reverted
to a wild state, and otherwise closely resemble their
truly wild relatives.
In the ordinary wild asses of Africa this basal
dark patch is represented merely by a faint shading,
the outer surface of the ear being distinctly brown
or black only at the tip ; moreover, the legs are
white, with or without dark bars. This leads Mr.
R. I . Pocock l to conclude that domesticated asses
are descended from another race of the species in
which the aforesaid features were developed.
Whether such an animal survives at the present
day is doubtful ; but it is suggested that in former
days, at any rate, it may have inhabited parts of
Nubia, extending considerably to the northward of
1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, vol. iv. p. 523, 1909.
220 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
the fifth cataract of the Nile, where wild asses are
now unknown.
The African wild asses of the present day, which
stand about twelve hands at the shoulder, are
divided into races according to their markings. The
Nubian race (E. asinus africanus, pi. xx. fig. 2),
which inhabits the country on both sides of the
Atbara river, in the Eastern Sudan, to the south of
Nubia proper, has a distinct shoulder-stripe, but no
dark markings on the limbs, with the exception of
a patch on the fetlocks. On the other hand, the
Somali race (E. a. somaliensis) has more or less
completely lost the dorsal and shoulder stripes, but
has the legs fully barred. There appears to be
also a third type, E. a. tceniopus, in which dorsal
and shoulder stripes are combined with full bar-
ring of the legs, but whether it has a habitat of its
own, and is thus entitled to rank as a definite local
race, has not yet been ascertained.
In general character wild asses resemble the
less altered domesticated breeds, although differing
by their more slender limbs and greatly superior
speed. Both have the same loud, unmelodious bray,
which is uttered by both sexes, and is said to be
nearly paralleled by the cry of Grevy's zebra. Both
display the same aversion to enter water ; and the
domesticated breeds have doubtless inherited their
capacity for existing on the poorest and driest fodder
from their wild ancestor, whose subsistence consists
THE ASS 221
of the hard, dry grasses growing in semi-desert
districts of North-eastern Africa.
In the domesticated condition asses are now
spread over a very large part of the warmer regions
of the Old World, including Southern and Central
Europe, the whole of Eastern and Southern Asia,
and Northern and Eastern Africa; while they are
also common in many parts of South America,
where some of them have run wild. Asses that
have reverted to the wild state are also found in the
island of Socotra ; and they are also stated to have
formerly existed in that condition in Sardinia and
some of the islands of the Grecian Archipelago.
The feral asses of Socotra, which are of the
Nubian type, although with the above-mentioned
blackish patch at the base of the backs of the ears,
closely resemble their wild progenitors, being all
coloured alike. The same is the case with many of
the less altered domesticated breeds, notably the
"gadas" of India. On the other hand, there are
many breeds which depart markedly from the wild
ancestral type in the matter of colour, and in some
cases also in their superiority of stature, or in the
length and thickness of the winter coat. The colour
variation is, however, much less marked than in the
case of the horse ; bay, chestnut, and true dun being
almost unknown.
Throughout the East the ass is much more exten-
sively used for riding and in agricultural operations
222 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
than is the case in Europe ; and many countries
have special breeds adapted for particular kinds of
work. It is stated, for instance,1 that Syria alone
possesses four distinct breeds — namely, a light and
graceful type with a pleasant, easy gait, used by
ladies of rank ; a so-called Arab breed, reserved
entirely for the saddle, and carefully groomed and
tended ; a stouter and more clumsily made strain
employed for ploughing and other agricultural
operations; and, lastly, the large Damascus breed,
characterised by its length of body and inordinately
long ears. Many of these Damascus asses are
white, and are apparently identical with a breed reared
at Bagdad, where they have been highly esteemed
for centuries, both on account of their colour and
their speed. Writing of the Syrian riding ass, Canon
Tristram2 states that it "will accomplish quite as
long a day's journey as the horse or the camel ;
though its speed is not so great, it will maintain an
easy trot and canter for hours without flagging, and
always gains on the horse up the hills or on the
broken ground."
In addition to Syria and Palestine, asses of a
dirty white colour are spread over Egypt, Persia,
and some of the neighbouring countries. Formerly,
at any rate, asses were largely kept in the East for
the sake of their milk, which, as is well known in
1 See Darwin, op. cit., p. 65.
2 Natural History of the Bible, London, 1867, p. 39.
THE ASS 223
Europe, is highly nutritive ; droves of she-asses
forming a special feature among the possessions of
the Biblical patriarchs.
Large and long-eared as is the white ass of
Damascus and Bagdad, it is exceeded in both these
respects by the famous Poitou breed of France,
which stands from about 13^ to as much as 16
hands at the shoulder, and varies in colour from
grey to black ; the black ones being the most
highly valued. These Poitou asses, which rival
cart-horses in size and make, are ugly -looking
beasts, having huge, ungainly heads, enormous
ears, in most cases long, heavy coats, pendent
manes, stout limbs, and relatively broad hoofs.
They are kept almost entirely for breeding mules
of a heavy and powerful type. Spain is also
celebrated for its asses, which are likewise mainly
reared for mule-breeding ; Andalucia and Catalonia
being two of the provinces where they are reared
in the greatest numbers. Although coloured like
the Poitou breed, of which they are believed to be
the ancestral stock, they are somewhat inferior in
stature and lighter in build ; the same characters
reappearing in the mules.
As the Poitou donkey marks the maximum
development of the species in point of size, so the
little grey Mahratta donkeys of Western India and
Ceylon represent the extreme in the opposite
direction, some of them standing no more than 8,
224 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
or even 7^, hands at the withers. Despite their
diminutive size, they stagger gamely along under
huge loads. Some Indian asses are, however,
considerably larger, and it is not uncommon to see
one of these ploughing with a humped ox or buffalo
for its yoke-fellow, while on rare occasions a camel
and an ass may be seen ploughing the same furrow.
To refer to the domesticated asses of all parts
of the world would be of little use or interest, even
if it were possible. Brief mention may, however,
be made of those of Majorca, in the Balearic group,
where there are two distinct breeds, of which the
larger is extensively exported to the United States
for mule-breeding. The smaller breed is a dwarf
grey animal, imported from Northern Africa, and
employed for carrying small loads or children.
The second and more abundant breed is a larger
animal, apparently allied to the asses of Spain,
and described as being black or dull chestnut in
colour, with the usual white muzzle and under-parts.
According to a figure given by Dr. C. Keller,1 from
whose work the foregoing details are taken, the
tail appears to be somewhat more fully haired than
is usually the case.
A special characteristic of the domesticated ass
is its surefootedness, a feature in which it differs
markedly from the horse.
1 " Studien iiber die Haustiere der Mittelmeer-Inseln," Neues
Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturfor. Ges., vol. xlvi. p. 112, 1911.
CHAPTER X
MULES AND OTHER HYBRIDS
THE fact that mares and male asses will readily
interbreed, although their product is sterile, has
been known from very early times ; Homer men-
tioning in the Iliad that the hemionus, or mule,
originally came from Henetia, in Pontic Asia
Minor, which was inhabited by a Paphlagonian
people. In a second passage it is stated that
mules were brought to Priam at Troy from Mysia ;
this according well with the first statement, as the
Mysians and Paphlagonians were neighbours, and
the route to the country of the former lay through
that of the latter.1 To the Greeks, the mule was
known either as hemionus (half-ass) — a name now
employed as the scientific designation of the onager
— or oreos or oureos (the mountain animal) ; the
latter title being given from the fact that mules
were used to carry loads of wood from the
mountains to the plains.
The word mule is derived from the Latin
mulus, which is itself believed to take its origin
from the Greek muchlos, a breeding ass, the
1 Heyn and S tally brass, Wanderings of Plants and Animals ',
p. in.
225
226 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
omission of the ch being compensated by the
lengthening of the preceding vowel. Muchlos
appears to have been taken from the Phocseans, who
were the mariners and colonisers of the West.1 As
already mentioned incidentally, the mule is properly
the product of the male ass and the mare, the
converse hybrid — that is to say, the product of
crossing a stallion with a she-ass — being termed
hinny, a word derived, through the Latin hinnus,
from the Greek hinnos, or ginos.
Mule has, however, come to be used for any
hybrid, e.g. a mule-canary.
With the possible exception of a few instances
in which the female is stated to have produced
offspring, the mule is sterile ; as, indeed, might be
expected to be the case when the difference
between its parents is borne in mind.
On this subject Sir E. Ray Lankester has
written as follows in one of his articles, " Science
from an Easy-Chair," published in the Daily
Telegraph : —
" A good case by which to exemplify our concep-
tion of a species is that afforded by the species
which are united in the genus Equus — the horse-
genus. There are living at the present day several
wild kinds of Equus— namely, the wild horse, or
tarpan, of the Gobi desert of Mongolia, called after
Przewalski ; two kinds of Asiatic wild ass, called
1 Heyn and Stallybrass, op. «'/., pp. 461, 462.
MULES^AND OTHER HYBRIDS 227
the kiang and the onager ; the African wild ass ;
and two or three kinds of zebra. There are,
besides, many kinds of domesticated horses, ranging
from the Shetland pony to the Flemish dray-horse,
and from the shire horse to the Arab. Then there
are many kinds of fossil extinct horses known,
some of which clearly must be placed in the genus
Equus with the living kinds, others which have
to be separated into special genera (Hippidium,
Onohippidium, &c.). Now, as to the living forms
or form-kinds of the genus Equus, which are we
to regard as true species, and which are only
varieties and races of lower significance than
species ? The answer is clear enough in regard to
several of them. The wild Mongolian horse and
all the domesticated horses are varieties, races, or
breeds of one species, judged not only by such
marks as the possession of callosities on both the
hind and the fore legs, but also by the test of
breeding. They breed together and produce per-
sisting races. But the asses and the zebras, though
they will form mules with the horse, do not freely
breed with it, nor establish a hybrid race. They
are distinct from the horse, not only in markings
and certain details of shape and hair, but in the
fact that they cannot be fused into one race with
him. There are no sufficient experiments on the
aloofness of zebras and asses from one another in
regard to breeding, although it seems that they
228 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
cannot establish a mixed race, and are therefore
distinct species judged by that test as well as by
their form and marking. It is not known whether
the so-called species of wild ass — the Asiatic and
the African — would prove to produce fertile or in-
fertile mules if inter-crossed, nor has the test been
applied to the very differently marked local races
of the African zebras — GreVy's zebra, Burchell's
zebra, and the mountain zebra. It is likely enough
that the three or more species distinguished among
zebras on account of their being differently striped,
and existing in different localities, would be found
to breed freely together, and prove themselves thus
to be entitled to be regarded as local ' varieties '
or ' races/ but not as fully-separated, true species."
In this passage the writer definitely commits
himself to the opinion that the fertility or sterility
of the hybrids produced by crossing two distinct
members of the horse family (or, for that matter, of
any other family) affords a definite and decisive
test whether such members should be regarded as
races or breeds of one and the same species, or as
distinct species. Such information as we possess
on the subject,1 comparatively meagre as it is, does
not, however, justify a sweeping generalisation like
the above, for there is really no hard-and-fast line
1 Much interesting information on horse and zebra hybrids will
be found in Professor J. C. Ewart's The Penicuik Experiments,
London, 1899.
MULES AND OTHER HYBRIDS 229
of distinction between races and species; the
former being practically species in the making.
On the contrary, fertility or sterility in the hybrid
depends on whether the two species (or even races)
severally represented by the parents are near or
distant relations of one another. For instance, the
Arab horse, whether it be regarded as a distinct
species or merely as a race of Equus caballus, as
exemplified by the wild tarpan, is clearly not far
removed from the latter, and the two therefore
interbreed freely. Again, as already mentioned,
the horse and the ass are two of the most widely
sundered members of the equine family, and their
hybrids are therefore sterile.
On the other hand if hybrids between the
African wild ass and the true zebra, which as we
have seen are nearly related, were to prove fertile,
as they well might, this would be no argument
for regarding those animals as races of a single
species, and the same would be the case if fertile
hybrids — which is improbable — were the result of
a union between the bontequagga and GreVy's
zebra or between the latter and the true zebra.
Practically all that can be inferred from the
interbreeding of the various members of the horse
family, so far as systematic zoology is concerned, is
that the whole of them are rightly included in the
single genus Equus.
Although no complete list of all the hybrids
230 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
that have been produced between different members
of the horse family is available, it appears that
crossing has taken place between nearly all of them.
Unfortunately, there is very little information with
regard to the fertility or sterility of the hybrids,
except in the case of the mule and the kiang.
There are, however, some undoubted instances of
partial fertility in the hybrids ; one of the best
known being a hybrid between the zebra and the
wild ass born many years ago at Knowsley Park,
the seat of the Earls of Derby, which gave rise to
offspring when crossed with a bay pony mare.
On some of the farms of Cape Colony individuals
of the true zebra are occasionally allowed to run
with domesticated donkeys, with which they may
interbreed. In 1896 I received a photograph of
a foetus apparently belonging to a hybrid of this
nature, sent by Mr. F. W. FitzSimons, director
of the Port Elizabeth Museum. The specimen
which is mounted in that museum was prematurely
born, but is fully developed, even to the harden-
ing of the hoofs, Whereas, however, the limbs
are transversely banded with black in the same
fashion as in the zebra, the colouring of the
body is of a totally different type. The ground-
colour is a warm buff, lightest on the limbs. The
whole of the neck is marked with a great number —
many scores — of very narrow, vertical black lines,
totally different from the broad black stripes of
MULES AND OTHER HYBRIDS 231
the zebra. The mane is also black ; and a black
line is continued from its termination to the root of
the tail, where it spreads out into an ill-defined in-
distinct black patch. Nothing was stated in the
original description with regard to the presence of
any dark markings on the rest of the body, but
from the photograph this area, like the head, appears
to be whole-coloured.
A somewhat similar type of colouring is pre-
sented by an adult hybrid in the British Museum
(vol. xxi. fig. 2), which was born about the year
1844 in the menagerie kept at that time by the
Earl of Derby at Knowsley Park. It is reputed to
be the offspring of a male zebra {Equus zebra) and
a female onager (E. onager).1 In the length of the
ears and the black barring, on a white ground, of the
legs, this hybrid approximates to its male parent,
although lacking the white tip to the ears character-
istic of all the members of the zebra group. The
general colour of the head, neck, and body is,
however, mouse-brown, with narrow, darker stripes
on the face and neck, and one broad and complete
and two narrower and imperfect shoulder-stripes.
The rest of the body is marked with chocolate
flecks, incompletely aggregated into inconspicuous
narrow stripes.
In a paper on hybrid foals published in the
1 See Gray, Handlist Edentate, Thick-skinned, and Ruminant
Mammals in Brit, Mus., p. 38, London, 1873.
232 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1911 l Mr.
R. I. Pocock remarks on the similarity between
this or another hybrid of the same nature born at
Knowsley2 and the undermentioned offspring of a
male Somali wild ass and a female zebra.
In the summer of 1911 hybrids between a male
Somali wild ass and a Matabili bontequagga (E.
burchelli chapmani) on the one hand and a zebra
(E. zebra) on the other were born in the London
Zoological Gardens, of which Mr. Pocock has
given the following description : —
"In both hybrid foals the head, neck, and
body are practically self-coloured, with the exception
of the spinal, ventral, and shoulder stripes, a few
narrow brown stripes above the muzzle on the nose,
and a shading of ashy grey on the lower part of the
neck. The mane is unstriped, but the legs are well
banded up to the level of the belly or thereabouts.
The ears have a dark basal stripe and a terminal
black patch, but the white ear-tip seen in zebras and
quaggas is absent. On the other hand, the white
area present just above the muzzle in asses is
absent. In the absence of the shoulder and spinal
stripes and of the patch on the base of the ear, the
Somali donkey differs from the domesticated
animal. , Two features characteristic of the
1 Page 991.
2 In the specimen referred to by Mr. Pocock the onager is stated
to be the sire.
MULES AND OTHER HYBRIDS 233
zebra, namely, the dewlap and the reversal of the
spinal hair, have been eliminated in the hybrid ; and
it is noticeable that the hair along the spine, especi-
ally on the croup, is as long as in the foal of Grevy's
zebra. The two foals are not exactly alike, differ-
ences in detail being detectable everywhere. The
ears, for example, are smaller, their basal stripe is
narrower and blacker, the shoulder-stripe is shorter,
the spinal crest less pronounced, and the legs are
less strongly banded in the quagga than in the
zebra foal. The resemblance, nevertheless, between
the two is striking."
Although the aforesaid hybrid between the
Somali wild ass and the zebra is the only known
example of such a cross, mules between the domes-
ticated ass and zebra have been known from the
time of Cuvier. A hybrid of this nature, whose
male parent was a black Spanish ass, described by
Cuvier himself, is stated by Mr. Pocock to have
been like the product of the Somali wild ass and
zebra, except that, when adult, the ground-colour
was dark grey, even on the legs, and there were
spots at the base of the tail. Both these hybrids
lacked the white ear-tip of the zebra and the white
muzzle of the ass.
All these hybrids agree in the absence of the
white zebra ear-tip and the white asinine muzzle, as
well as in the more or less complete suppression ot
the stripes on the head and body ; and it is very
234 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
noteworthy that when such striping does occur it is
of the narrow type characteristic of Gravy's zebra
and the undermentioned bontequagga-pony hybrid.
All the races of the bontequagga will interbreed ;
and it is probable that in some instances the hybrids
may be fertile, although they are generally as sterile
as mules. Recently a hybrid foal between a female
of the Matabili E. b. burchelli and a male of the
East African E. b. granti was born in the Royal
Dublin Zoological Gardens. The noticeable feature
in this foal is that while the legs have the com-
plete barring of those of granti, the body shows
the shadow- stripes of chapmani ; this illustrating
the potency of leg-barring.
The Matabili bontequagga has been crossed by
Professor Ewart with a black pony mare from the
Isle of Man and also with bay ponies. The resulting
progeny (pi. xxi. fig. i) were bay in ground-colour,
but more or less fully marked, with narrow and
closely approximated dark stripes, quite unlike those
of the male parent in width and number, and to a
considerable extent also^ in direction. Probably,
as in the instances noted above, they indicate
reversion towards an earlier ancestral type.
Hybrids of this type have been used for draught
and riding in countries unsuited to horses, and they
are believed to be immune to the attacks of tsetse-
fly. Whatever may be their value under such cir-
cumstances, it is unlikely that these zebra-hybrids,
PLATE XXI
FIG. i
FIG. 2
MULES AND OTHER HYBRIDS 235
as they are commonly called, will ever come into
general use, since they have the disadvantage that
one of their parents is always a wild animal,
whereas a mule is the product of species which have
been domesticated for centuries.
In the case of both mules and hinnies the
general build and appearance of the animal accord
with the type of the sire, although in the matter of
bodily size the dam is followed. Mules are there-
fore asinine in appearance, although with a more
horse-like tail, and relatively large ears ; whereas the
more horse-like hinny is small. If, however, females
of the great Poitou ass were to be utilised for
hinny-breeding, the progeny would probably be
of larger stature. One exception to the ass-like
character of the mule is that it lacks the white belly
of its male parent. Hinnies, on account of their
inferior size and strength, are but seldom bred,
although they are used to a certain extent in some
parts of Ireland.
Mules are comparatively uncommon in England,
but are extensively employed in many parts of the
Continent, such as Spain, and on account of their
surefooted character, which they inherit from the
ass, are especially suited to mountain work. They
are largely employed in the Punjab, more particularly
in the frontier districts, for military purposes, where
there are mule- batteries for hill- work. These
batteries are armed with light field-guns, which are
236 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
so constructed as to be readily taken to pieces, when
the constituent parts are easily carried on mule-
back, through country which would be impracticable
for ordinary field-artillery. In addition to their
surefootedness, mules, in proportion to their size,
are stronger and more enduring than horses ; like
the ass, they will also thrive on poorer fodder,
while they are likewise less liable to disease than
horses, and are said to be longer-lived. In America
mules are very largely employed ; and in Brazil,
when the lines of railway are left, travelling in the
drier districts is to a great extent accomplished in
light carriages drawn by four or six mules, which
are driven by the coachman.
"Obstinate as a mule" has become a proverb;
but the supposed obstinacy and vice are largely
the result of ill-usage; and, although some in-
dividuals are incurably vicious, mules when properly
treated and handled are quite amenable animals.
Many years ago I rode a mule for several months
in the Punjab, and found it in every respect an
admirable mount.
A large number of light-coloured mules, parti-
cularly in the Punjab, exhibit dark barrings on the
legs, and occasionally a shoulder-stripe. Writing on
this subject, Darwin l observes that " such mules
are generally light-coloured, and might be called
fallow-duns. The shoulder-stripe in one instance
1 Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. ii. p. 16.
MULES AND OTHER HYBRIDS 237
was deeply forked at the extremity, and in another
instance was double, although united in the middle.
Mr. Martin gives a figure of a Spanish mule with
strong zebra-like marks on its legs, and remarks
that mules are particularly liable to be thus striped
on their legs. In South America, according to
Roulin, such stripes are more frequent and con-
spicuous in the mule than in the ass. In the
United States, Mr. Gosse, speaking of these
animals, says that in a great number, perhaps in
i;nine out of every ten, the legs are banded with
dark transverse stripes." In a later paragraph
Darwin continues as follows : " From these facts
we see that the crossing of the several equine
.species tends in a marked manner to cause stripes
:to appear on the legs. As we do not know whether
[the parent -form of the genus was striped, the
appearance of the stripes can only hypothetically
be attributed to reversion. But most persons, after
considering the many undoubted cases of variously-
coloured marks reappearing by reversion in my
'experiments on crossed pigeons and fowls, will
come to the same conclusion with regard to the
horse-genus ; and if so, we must admit that the
progenitor of the group was striped on the legs,
shoulders, face, and probably over the whole body,
like a zebra."
While fully admitting the cogency of this argu-
ment, it may be suggested that the striping may
238 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
have existed only in the proximate ancestors of the
modern members of the horse group, and that the
earlier progenitors were not thus marked. Indeed
it has been mentioned on page 52 that there an
reasons for believing that the earlier members o
the horse -stock had a totally different type o
colouring.
PLATE XXII
ones of fore-feet of extinct forerunners of the Horse. A, Hyracotherium, or
Eohippus ; B, Mesohippus ; C, Merychippus or Protohippits ; D, Hipparion.
CHAPTER XI
THE EXTINCT FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE
OF few mammals has the record of their past
history been so well preserved as is the case with
the horse and its existing relatives ; for as we
descend through the five stages — Pleistocene,
Pliocene, Miocene, Oligocene, and Eocene — of the
uppermost, or Tertiary, epoch of geological history
we can trace a more or less complete gradation
from the horses of the present day to primitive,
many-toed animals, scarcely larger than foxes, and
presenting few of the features which render the
horse and its relatives such a remarkable group.
In other words, from tall, single-toed quadrupeds,
adapted for grazing on open plains, and endowed
with the maximum speed of which mammalian
organisation is capable, we can trace the passage
through smaller, three-toed forest-dwelling and
browsing animals, to small and almost fox-like
creatures which in all probability frequented the
swampy shores of lakes and marshes, and were
little if any faster than badgers.
How long a period was the evolution from the
little four-toed Hyracotherium of the Lower Eocene
239
CL.
THE ANCESTORS OF THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES COMPARED IN SIZE
AND FORM WITH THEIR TYPICAL MODERN REPRESENTATIVE
a, Hyracotherium of the Lower Eocene ; b, Plagiolophus, or Orohippus,
of the Middle Eocene ; c, Mcsohippus> of the Oligocene ; d, Mcrychippus> of
the Miocene ; e, Pliohippus, of the Pliocene ; /, the Horse, Equus caballus.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 241
period to the horse of the present day — in other
words, what was the length of the Tertiary
period, or age of mammals — is a question which
must occur to all. To answer that question with
any approach to correctness in terms of years or
centuries is a practical impossibility, although it
has been frequently attempted ; and all that can be
done is to endeavour to convey by means of the
stupendous events which have taken place during
the Tertiary period some faint idea of the enormous
length of time represented by that latest stage in
the geological history of our globe.
This mode of gaining some idea of the immense
lapse of time which has taken place during the slow
evolution of the Eocene Hyracotherium into the
modern Equus, or, in other words the birth of
mountain-chains during the Age of Mammals, has
been well expressed by Professor H. F. Osborn,1
who writes as follows : —
"The Rocky Mountains, it is true, began their
elevation during the close of the Age of Reptiles
[that is to say, during the Secondary period, which
immediately preceded the Tertiary, and includes
the Chalk and Oolites] ; they had only attained a
height of four or five thousand feet when the Age
of Mammals commenced ; they continued to rise
during the entire period. But consider the map of
Europe and Asia at the beginning of Eocene time
1 The Age of Mammals, New York, 1910, p. 58.
Q
.'
242 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
and realise that the great mountain systems of
the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Himalayas were
still unborn, level surfaces in fact, partly washed by
the sea. The birth of the Pyrenees was at the
beginning of the Oligocene. At this time Switzer-
land was still a comparatively level plain, and not
until the close of the Oligocene did the mighty
\ system of the Swiss Alps begin to rise. Central
Asia was even yet a plain and upland, and only
during the Miocene did the Himalayas, the noblest
existing mountain chain, begin to rise to their present
fellowship with the sky. In North America, again,
since the close of the Eocene the region of the
present Grand Canon of the Colorado has been
elevated 1 1 ,000 feet, and the river has carved its
mighty canon through the rock to its present maxi-
mum depth of 6500 feet.
" Those who have been impressed with a sense
of the antiquity of these wonders of the world, and
will imagine the vast changes in the history of
continental geography and continental life which
were involved, will be ready to concede that the
Age of Mammals alone represents an almost incon-
ceivable^period of timer**'
Admirably alPHfrhis aspect of the subject ex-
pressed by Professor Osborn, the force of the com-
parison would have been intensified if it had been
mentioned that at the time when the fox-like
Hyracotherium was wandering in the marshes of
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 243
Kent not only was the Himalaya non-existent,
but that along the line of its very heart — where the
kiang now lives at an elevation of from thirteen
thousand to sixteen thousand feet — expended an
arm of the sea of no inconsiderable depth. — **
Although one of the earliest forerunners of the
horse-tribe, the above-mentioned Hyracptherium,
lived in England during the deposition of the
Lower Eocene London Clay, the evolution of the
is much more clearly displayed in the
Tertiary strata of North America than it is in those
of Europe, where the chain is completely broken
during the Oligocene epoch. From this it has
been inferred that the . entire evolution took place
on the American continent ; although as mentioned
in an earlier chapter, the real birthplace was pro-
bably in East Central Asia, whence the group
spread in one direction into Europe, and finally
Africa, and in the other into North America, and
thence, during the late Pliocene epoch, when the
two continents became united, into the southern
half of the New World.
In both North and South America members
of the horse-family survived into the Pleistocene
epoch ; those of the northern continent belonging
to the existing Equus, whereas those of the southern
continent represented extinct generic types. In
North America the whole group died completely
out at the close of the Pleistocene ; and it is
244 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
generally believed that the same thing took place in
South America.
Why this sudden disappearance of a dominant c
and thriving group occurred was long a puzzle. It
was not that the country had become unsuited to
these animals, for when domesticated horses were
introduced and escaped from captivity, they ran i
wild and increased amazingly in both halves of the
New World. This suggests that the extinction
was probably brought about either by bacterial
infection or by a disease analogous to that pro-
duced by the agency of tsetse flies in certain parts
of Africa at the present day. In connection with
the latter part of this suggestion, it is especially
noteworthy that remains of extinct tsetses have
been discovered in the Miocene formation of Floris-
sant, Colorado.
v The existing genus Equus, which, as shown in
the preceding chapters of this volume, includes all
the living members of the family, extends down-
wards through the Pleistocene into the upper
portion of the Pliocene period alike in North
America, Asia, and Europe. Possibly it may go
as low down as the Lower Pliocene in the Siwalik
Hills of India, although this is uncertain, as the
higher beds of the Siwaliks, which contain remains
of true horses, may prove to belong to the upper
part of the Pliocene epoch.
Here it may be well to recapitulate a few of
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 245
the leading features of the genus Eqmis, which
includes the largest, and doubtless the swiftest,
members of the entire group, all of which are fitted
for a life on the open plains, where they subsist
entirely by grazing. In correlation with this kind
of life is the great length and columnar structure
of the cheek-teeth, which show an intricate enamel-
pattern on the grinding surface, and are characterised
by the union of the antero-internal pillar of those
of the upper jaw with the main body of the crown
by means of a narrow neck, as shown at A of
the figure on page 33 ; the hollows between the
enamel-foldings being completely filled with cement.
In the skull the socket of the eye is surrounded by
a complete ring of bone, there is no deep depression
or pit immediately in front of the same, and the slit
between the fore part of the upper jaw and the
nasal bones is short. A long gap, or diastema, in
the front half of which are implanted the tusks, or
canines (when these are present), separates the
incisor from the cheek-teeth; and the crowns of
the incisors themselves are penetrated, in early
life, by the pit, or "mark," which has already been
sufficiently described. ' JEach limb terminates in a
single hoof, upon which alone the animal walks ;
but the lateral toes — second and fourth — of the
extinct three -toed members of the family are
represented by splints, which may either remain
free or be welded to the adjacent cannon-bone.
246 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
As mentioned in earlier chapters, the Prehistoric
and Pleistocene deposits of Europe and Turkestan
have yielded remains inseparable for the most part
at any rate from the modern horse {Equus caballus]^
of which they probably represent several phases
or races, while others have been assigned to the
ass (E. asinus\ and yet others to the onager
(E. onager). From the Pleistocene gravels of the
Narbada Valley, in Central India, have been
obtained skulls and other remains of a horse (E.
namadicus) characterised by the elongation of the
grinding surface of the anterior pillars on the inner
side of the upper cheek-teeth ; the same species
also occurring in the topmost beds of the Siwaliks
of Northern India.
In North America the Pleistocene and Upper
Pliocene formations have yielded remains of at
least nine extinct members of the modern genus ;
one of these, E. fraternus, closely resembling E.
caballus, while a second, E. giganteus, from South-
western Texas, appears to have been the largest of
the whole group ; the cheek-teeth exceeding those
of the biggest cart-horses by more than one-third
the diameter of the latter.
In the Upper Pliocene deposits of the Val
d'Arno and other parts of Europe, including the
so-called Forest Bed of the coast of Norfolk, occurs
a horse (E. stenonis) with molars of a somewhat
more primitive . type than those of the existing
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 247
members of the genus ; the primitive feature being
the shortness of the antero-internal pillar of those
of the upper jaw. There is also a slight depression
in the wall of the skull immediately in advance
of the socket of the eye. Nearly allied to Steno's
horse is Equus sivalensis, of the Pliocene deposits
of the Indian Siwaliks, which, as already mentioned,
exhibits both the aforesaid features. So far as can
be determined, this Siwalik horse seems to have
stood about 15 hands at the shoulder, and to have
had a relatively big head, and slender cannon-bones,
with proportionately large splints.
After mentioning that in respect of their upper
molars Equus stenonis and E. sivalensis occupy an
intermediate position between the modern members
of the genus and the extinct Pliocene Protohippusy
Prof. Marcellin Boule1 proceeds to observe that
when a large series of the remains of the first-named
species is studied, " it will be found that in respect
of stature, of the plications of the enamel of the
upper molars, and of the shape of their inner pillars,
Equus stenonis presents individual variations com-
parable to those which occur in the different
varieties or races of the horse, both of the Pleisto-
cene and modern epochs. Certain teeth, of relatively
small size, display remarkable resemblances to those
of the ass; and I have shown that milk-teeth of
1 " Les Chevaux fossiles des Grottes de Grimaldi," Ann. de PaUon-
tologie, vol. v. p. 130, 1910.
248 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
E. stenonis from certain Pliocene formations in the
Auvergne and Velay present certain features now
found only among zebras. I have also shown that
other teeth, from a higher horizon in the Pliocene,
differ from the former by their larger size, the more
complicated folding of the enamel, the greater
length of the anterior pillar, and certain other
features connecting them with the Pleistocene
representatives of E. caballus, more especially those
molars with very complicated enamel-foldings,
like those from England described by Owen
as E. plicidenSy and those from certain French
caverns, such as Cindre" and Bruniquel.
" It appears, then, that the stenonis type was
extremely variable during the Pliocene, being
represented by forms already showing tendencies
towards various modern groups of Equidcz. Among
these forms, all of which are remarkable on account
of the shortness of the anterior pillar of the upper
cheek-teeth, some were of small size, and apparently
related to the asses, having the enamel-folds of the
cheek-teeth relatively simple, and their external
lobes dilated ; these seem to have developed directly
into the zebras of modern Africa. Others, of larger
size, with the enamel of the molars more plicated,
and the external lobes forming more pronounced
crescents, appear to have passed insensibly into
some of the larger forms of Equus caballus found
in certain Pleistocene formations."
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 249
After remarking that the modern horse dates
back to the Pleistocene, or Quaternary, epoch, but
is unknown in the Pliocene, Prof. Boule observes
that "it is found at Chelles and in most of the
deposits of the great interglacial period. It persists
right through the Quaternary, everywhere in
abundance. It is represented in the Middle Pleisto-
cene by races or varieties, to which it is possible
to affiliate certain modern races or varieties.
Finally, it seems that the evolution of this useful
and interesting animal continues to the present day,
and that under human influence it will still continue
to progress."
That the extinct Indian E. sivalensis and E.
namadicus, which, as already mentioned, differ
from one another in the length of the grinding
surface of the anterior pillar of the upper cheek-
teeth (this being short in the former and long in
the latter), gave rise to successors seems almost
certain. At one time I suggested 1 that the kiang
might be derived from E. sivalensis ; but the cheek-
teeth of the former are so much smaller than those
of the latter, that this seems unlikely. A latter
suggestion is that if the Arab be specificially dis-
tinct from E. caballus it may have originated from
the Siwalik species, probably through the later
Narbada horse.
1 Palaontologia Indica (Mem. GeoL Surv. India), ser. 10, vol. ii.
p. 89, 1882.
250 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
In North America the immediate precursor of
the modern Equus is the genus Pliohippus, whose
remains occur in deposits belonging to the Lower
Pliocene and to the antecedent Miocene epoch.
Whether this was a completely single-toed animal,
or whether there were small remnants of the lateral
toes, appears uncertain. If these were present
they must, however, have been extremely small
and quite functionless, as the splint-bones are
scarcely larger than in the modern horse.1 The
cheek-teeth are larger than those of the under-
mentioned Protohippus, but owing to the relative
shallowness of the jaws, as compared with those of
Equus, their crowns were still more sharply curved.
PliohippuS) as typified by P. pernix of the Loup
Fork beds of Nebraska, was the largest of the con-
temporary horses, standing about 12 hands at
the withers, and thus equalling a good-sized pony.
The range of the genus included the Western
United States, especially Nebraska and Oregon.
Not improbably this or a closely allied form was
the direct ancestor of Equus.
It has likewise been suggested that Pliohippus
gave rise to the remarkable Hippidiuin {Hippidiori)
and Onohippidium of the Pleistocene deposits of
South America : this is considered, problematical
by Prof. Lull, although more favourably received
1 See R. S. Lull, "The Evolution of the Horse Family, " Amer. J.
Science, ser. 4, vol. iii. p. 478, 1907.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 251
by Prof. Osborn.1 That the ancestors of the two
South American genera came from the north is
practically certain ; and it is therefore probable
that such ancestors were identical with or closely
allied to either Pliohippus or Protohippus.
Hippidium as typified by //. neogceum and its
near relative Onohippidium munizi were small, heavy-
headed horses, differing in many important details
from all other members of the family. In both
genera the cheek-teeth have shorter crowns and
differ in several details of structure from those of
modern horses. A cast of the skeleton (pi. xxiii.)
in the British Museum stands 12^ hands at the
withers, while the skull measures 23^ in. jn total
length. In a European horse-skeleton standing 14^
hands the skull-length is about 2$f in., or practi-
cally the same as in the much smaller Hippidium.
Comparison of the skull of the latter with that
of an ordinary horse shows a remarkable differ-
ence in the structure of the nasal region. In
the horse the nasal bones are separated from the
maxillae, or upper jawbones, of each side by a slit
of only some three or four inches in length.
In Hippidium and the allied Onohippidium (pi. xxiv.
fig. i), on the other hand, these slits are about
ioj in. long, while the nasal bones themselves are
proportionately long and slender. This indicates
that these extinct American genera had extremely
1 op. «•/., p. 356.
252 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
elongated noses, not improbably forming a kind
of short trunk comparable to- that of the saiga
antelope.
In that animal, as well as in its relative the
chiru of Tibet, the increased size of the nasal
chamber has been brought about by a shortening,
instead of an elongation, of the nasal bones, but it
is probable that in these two antelopes and in the
hippidium the purpose of the modification is the
same. It has been supposed that in the case of
the chiru the large size of the nasal chamber is an
adaptation to the respiratory needs of an animal
living at a very high elevation ; but in the case of
the saiga such an explanation cannot hold good ;
and the real explanation in all three cases may
perhaps be found in a special adaptation to a desert
life, the long nose serving as a filter to prevent
particles of sand reaching the organ of smell.
As regards the rest of its skeleton, Hippidium
is remarkable for its short and stout limbs ; this
being chiefly due to the excessive shortness of the
cannon-bones, which are also unusually wide, and
the great stoutness of the splint-bones. Each limb
terminates in a single toe. These short limbs,
coupled with the huge, unwieldy head, indicate that
the hippidium had less speed than ordinary ponies.
There are only five ribless trunk, or lumbar, verte-
brae, as in the Arab horse.
The skull of Hippidium shows no marked
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 253
depression in front of the eye-socket, but that of
Onohippidium has a long and deep oval pit in this
position divided into two distinct portions. Remains
of this group of extinct horses have been found in
the superficial deposits of the pampas of Argentina,
and also in caverns in Patagonia, Brazil, Bolivia,
Peru, and Ecuador. The Peruvian species was de-
scribed in 1908 by Mr. Nordenskiold * as Onohippi-
dium per uanum, but in 1910 was made the type of a
distinct genus, under the name of Hyperhippidium
peruanum?
In all three genera the crowns of the cheek-
teeth are shorter than in Equus ; and those of the
upper jaw are characterised by the equality in the
size of the grinding surfaces of the anterior and
posterior pillars on the inner side.
Hoofs of Onohippidium have been found in a
remarkably fresh state of preservation in a cavern
at Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) Inlet, Patagonia,
in association with the skin and hair and other
remains of an extinct giant ground-sloth (Grypo-
therium). Since it is practically certain that the
latter lived during the human period, it is most
likely that the same was the case with Onohippidium.
Now it has been suggested that certain wild horses
seen in Argentina by John Cabot in the year 1530
1 Arkiv fur Zoologi, Stockholm, vol. iv. No. II, p. 17.
8 I. Sefoe, "Hyperhippidium, eine neue Siidamerikanische Pferde-
gattung," Stockholm, Vet. Ak.-Handl vol. xlvi. pt. 2, p. I.
254 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
were really indigenous, and not the descendants of
European horses escaped from captivity (the date
appearing too early for European horses to have
established themselves in the country). If this
suggestion be well founded, it is quite certain that
Cabot's horses were survivors of the Onohippidium.
Reverting to the North American members of
the group, the next genus for notice is Protohippus,
of the Loup Fork Miocene, which is closely related
to the undermentioned contemporary Merychippus,
but differs by the full development of cement in the
cheek-teeth of the milk or deciduous series, as well
as in those of the permanent set. Owing to the
shallowness of the jaws, the crowns of these teeth are
highly curved ; they are also relatively shorter than
in Equus, and have much the same pattern on the
grinding surface as those of Hippidium. The splint-
bones of the feet are complete, and terminate in
small, although perfect toes, so that Protohippus
was a three-toed animal. The typical species of
the genus stood only 9 hands at the shoulder.
Certain equine remains from the Miocene of
Russia have been referred to Protohippus by Madam
Pavlow,1 but, as the author herself admits, they are
too imperfect for definite generic determination.
The aforesaid North American Miocene genus
Merychippus is the last of the genera in the direct
line of Equus which have the socket of the eye
1 Bulletin de Socittt des Naturalistes de Moscou, 1903, p. 173.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 255
surrounded by a complete ring of bone. It is of
special interest on account of the circumstance that
while its permanent cheek-teeth resemble those of
all the preceding genera in having their hollows
completely filled up with cement and the whole
crown relatively tall, those of the deciduous or milk
series are short-crowned, with their hollows open and
devoid of cement. The genus thus-forms a grada-
tion in this respect from Protohippus to the lower
Right Upper Milk- Molars (a) and Premolars(£) of the Extinct American
MerychippuS) \ natural size
and more generalised members of the horse-line.
The degree of complexity of the enamel-foldings
in the crowns of the upper cheek-teeth varies in the
different species. The feet are three-toed, with in
some instances a rudiment of a fourth, or outermost,
toe in the front pair ; that is to say, of a toe corre-
sponding with the human little finger. The two
lateral toes vary in size in the different species, but
in none did they touch the ground, so that the feet,
256 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
like those of Protohippus, are functionally one-toed.
The genus, which ranges in space from Texas to
Oregon and Montana, is typically represented by
P. insignis.
In this place it will be convenient to notice
certain horse-like animals which, although attaining
very considerable specialisation, evidently form a
side-branch, and are off the ancestral line of the
modern representatives of the horse family. The
group is typified by Hipparion gracilis of the Lower
Pliocene strata of Germany, Greece, Spain, and
other parts of Europe ; but is represented in the
corresponding formation of India by H. theobaldi,
and by other species in Persia and China ; all of
these being animals of the approximate size of a
Galloway, but with a shorter head and a deep
depression in the skull in front of the socket of the
eye, probably for the reception of a lachrymal
gland. The lateral toes are rather larger than in
ProtohippuS) but as they scarcely reach below the
lower end of the first phalangeal of the main digit,
they could have been of little or no functional
importance. The most characteristic feature of
Hipparion is, however, as shown in B of the illus-
tration on page 33, that the anterior inner pillar
(or protocone, as it is often called) is completely
surrounded by a ring of enamel, and is thus entirely
cut off from the rest of the crown. In some
specimens there are, however, little projections
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 257
from the adjacent column of the main body of the
crown, which are evidently remnants of the neck
of enamel connecting the latter with the anterior
Front View of the Bones of the Right Fore (a) and Hind (b) Feet of the
Extinct American Hipparion^ £ natural size
pillar in the more typical members of the family.
The grinding surface of the anterior pillar forms
a regular ellipse. Another feature of the hipparion
• - R
258 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
molar is the great complexity of the foldings of
the enamel in the central islands of the crown.
The North American hipparions, which occur,
in the Miocene, have been separated generically
from their Old World relatives by Mr. J. W. Gidley1
as Neohipparion. From the typical hipparions
the American species are distinguished by the
larger size and more elliptical form of the grinding
surface of the anterior pillar of the upper cheek-
teeth ; the simpler folding of the enamel of their
central islands ; and the concave external walls of
Crown Surface of Left Upper Molar of the Extinct American Hipparion,
£ natural size, pr, anterior pillar, or protocone
their outer columns. The limbs, more especially
the cannon-bones, are also of a longer and more
slender type, and the lateral toes appear to be
relatively small. Finally, they antedate the Old
World species in time, and may thus be near akin to
the ancestral form of the latter, if indeed they be not
the actual ancestors. At most, however, they are
only worthy of subgeneric distinction.
In regard to the anterior pillar, or protocone,
of the American genus, Prof. Lull 2 remarks that
1 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.^ vol. xix. p. 465, 1903.
8 Op. cit., p. 179.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 259
whereas " in Merychippus insignis the protocone,
while attached [by a neck of enamel to the adjacent
crescent], tends to become free, yet in Neohipparion
isonesum the reverse is true in that the protocone,
although free, shows a strong reluctance to leave
its old association with the anterior crest [crescent].
In other species of Neohipparion this is not apparent,
the protocone being oval in section, and entirely
free in all stages of wear."
In appearance the American hipparions were
deer-like, and therefore probably adapted to a high
rate of speed. They stood about 10 hands at the
shoulder, and were therefore smaller thaa-their
relatives of the Old World.
The skull of an hipparion from* the Upper
Tertiary strata of Samos has been described by
Dr. H. Studer* as a distinct species, under the
name of H. proboscideus ; the conformation of the
extremity of the upper jawbone leading him to
conclude that it was provided with a short proboscis
in life. As stated in the first chapter, he also
believes that in this and other cases where it occurs
the preorbital pit is for the attachment of muscles
required for the support and working of the pro-
boscis. From the fact that a preorbital pit occurs
in Merychippus, as well as in Onohippidium and
other genera, Dr. Studer is inclined to think that a
1 Zeits. Deutsch. Zool. Ges^ 1910-11, p. 11.
260 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
proboscis may have been developed in most or all
of the forerunners of the horse-group.
Against this view it may be urged ti\%\.Hippidium,
which probably had a proboscis like Onohippidium
— as the skull-structure in the two genera is almost
identical — lacks a preorbital pit. As the various
opinions in regard to the function of that pit have
been fully discussed in the first chapter, no further
reference to the subject is necessary in this place.
It remains, however, to add that a small species
of hipparion of slender build from the Pliocene
strata of the Siwalik Hills of Northern India,
described in the first half of the nineteenth century
by Messrs. Cautley and Falconer as Hippotherium
antilopinum {Hippotherium being an alternative
name for Hipparion) is now believed to have lost
the lateral toes, and has accordingly been referred
to a genus by itself, under the name of Hippodactylus.
In addition to the typical Hippodactylus antilopinus,
there is a second Siwalik species, which has been
named H. chisholmi?
It may be added that in Hipparion, as well
as in Merychippus, the terminal bone of the main
toe has a cleft in the middle of its lower front
border ; this cleft occurring in many of the earlier
forerunners of the horse.
All the foregoing genera may undoubtedly be
included in the same family — Equida — as the
1 G. Pilgrim, Rec. Geol. Suru. India, vol. xl. p. 67, 1910.
PLATE XXIV
FIG. i
FIG. 2
FIG. i. Skull of Onohippidium ; pf, preorbital depression.
FIG. 2. Crown surfaces of right upper molar teeth of Equus
CC'\ A or,
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 261
modern horse ; but when we come to the more
primitive types, of which the American Hypohippus
is the first for notice, such remarkable differences
from the existing forms are found that the question
Front View of the Bones of the Right Fore (a) and Hind (d) Feet of the
Extinct American Hypohippus equinus, \ natural size
of the limitations of the family forces itself to
the front. And here it may be noted that it is
the very completeness of our knowledge of the
262 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
horse-line that constitutes the main difficulty ; for
if the gaps were wider than they are, the division
into family groups would be easier. Professor
Osborn,1 like several other American naturalists,
cuts the knot by including all the forerunners of
the modern horse in the same family as the latter.
According to this arrangement, the Equidcz is
divided into the following four subfamily groups :—
1. EQUIN^E, including the single-toed Equus^ Hippidium,
and Onohippidium. u
2. PROTOHipPiNjEy represented by the mostly three-toed
PliohippuS) ProtohippuS) Merychippus, Hipparion, and
Hippodactylus.
3. ANCHITHERIIN^E, with the fully three-toed Hypohippus,
Anchitherium, Mesohifpus, Anchilophus, &c.
4. HYRACOTHERIIN,E, including the four-toed Lophiotherium^
Orohippus, Hyracotherium, &c.
All these very different types are included by
the American naturalists under the general name of
u horses," which is, of course, distinctly straining
the use of that term to an unjustifiable extent.
Moreover, the attempt to include all the members
of one line of ancestry — or phylum, as it is called
by American naturalists — must break down some-
where, or otherwise we should have to include in
the Equidce those members of the mammal-like
reptiles from which that group is ultimately
derived.
Admitting, then, that arbitrary breaks must be
1 The Age of Mammals ) pp. 555, 556.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 263
made at certain points of the chain, it seems
advisable to raise Professor Osborn's Anchi-
theriince and Hyracotheriince to the rank of families,
so that the horse-line will be represented by the
three families Equidce, Anchitheriidce^ and Hyraco-
theriidcz.
Of these the Anchitheriidce will be character-
ised by the retention of functional lateral toes, by
the shortness of the crowns of the cheek-teeth and
their open valleys, unencumbered by cement, and
by incompleteness of the bony ring round the eye-
socket. The members of this family are of special
interest as indicating the passage from small marsh-
dwelling animals to types fitted for browsing in
forests ; these last passing in their turn into the
grazing and plain-dwelling Equidce. Writing from
this point of view of the Miocene epoch in North
America, Professor Lull l remarks that —
" This was a time of continental elevation and
great expansion of our western prairies and a con-
sequent diminution of the forest-clad areas. Many
mammals otherwise fitted for survival, such as the
titanotheres whose remains are very numerous in
the Oligocene beds, were unable to meet the new
conditions because of their very perfect adaptation
to softer herbage, and thus became extinct. This
was also true of certain horses, such as Hypohippus,
but the great majority were more plastic and in
1 Op. cit., p. 177-
264 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
consequence underwent a remarkable development,
during this period reaching the culmination in
numbers and kinds."
^xx The aforesaid Hypohippus, typified by H.
osborm of the North American Miocene, is the
culminating development of the anchitherine group,
and is believed to have died out without giving
rise to descendants. Neither can its precise fore-
runner be determined, for its fore-foot, in which
the lateral toes were evidently functional and
touched the ground, retains minute rudiments of
the toes corresponding to the human thumb and
little finger (first and fifth of the full typical series
of five), which are lacking in the earlier Oligocene
genera. From the structure of the feet, which
indicate an animal suited to soft ground rather than
hard, grassy plains, and its broad, low-crowned
cheek-teeth fitted only for browsing on succulent
herbage, Hypohippus has been called the browsing
or forest horse. This animal was of relatively
large size for its time, standing 10 hands at the
withers.
Its remains occur in the Loup Fork beds of
Southern Dakota and Montana ; but Professor
Osborn * is of opinion that certain remains from
the Tertiary strata of Central China indicate animals
closely allied to, if not identical with Hypohippus.
This is very important in connection with the view
1 Op. «V.,pp. 297,332.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 265
that Eastern Asia was the original home of the
horse-group ; and it derives additional importance
from Professor Osborn's further suggestion that
Pliohippus may likewise be represented in the
Chinese Tertiary fauna.
The American genus Parahippus, which ac-
cording to Professor Osborn ranges in time from
the Lower Pliocene to the Upper Oligocene,
although Dr. Lull records it only from the Miocene
Loup Fork beds, has short-crowned cheek-teeth
resembling these of Hypohippus in general char-
acters, but differing in several structural details.
Among these differences may be noticed the strong
ribbing of the external wall of the outer columns
of the upper milk-molars. For other details the
reader may refer to an article by Mr. J. W.
Gidley.1 Anchippodus and Desmathippus appear
to be synonyms of this genus. A peculiarity of
the short-crowned upper molars of Parahippus
which cannot be passed over without mention is
the presence in their open valleys of an exceed-
ingly thin layer of cement ; this being the first
appearance of a substance which, as shown above,
takes a large and important share in the structure
of the molars of the modern horse. This layer
is .absent in Archceohippus, of the Miocene of
Oregon, a small animal with cheek-teeth resem-
bling those of the undermentioned Mesohippus, but
1 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hisi., vol. xx. p. 192, 1904.
266 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
distinguished by the presence of a large preorbital
pit in the skull.
Akin to Hypohippus, which was at one time
regarded as inseparable from the Old World genus,
is the European Anchitherium, typically repre-
sented by A. aurelianense from the Middle Miocene
freshwater beds of Sansan, in Gers, France, and
other equivalent continental formations, which was
known to science long before the discovery of
the allied American forms. Anchitherium was
an animal of the approximate size of a sheep,
and, in addition to its broad, short-crowned cheek-
teeth, is specially characterised by the rudiment
of the pit, or "mark," in the centre of the
summits of the crowns of the incisor teeth, which,
as we have seen, attains such a large development
in the modern horse and its relatives. In Anchi-
therium the pits were, however, developed only
in the permanent incisors. The lateral toes in
each foot are considerably smaller than the central
one, but probably touched the ground in walking.
Another feature is that the ulna in the fore-limb
and the fibula in the hind one form complete
although slender bones, which are, however, seve-
rally united with the radius and tibia, t In the
horse they are represented only by their upper
extremities. In many respects Anchitherium and
its relatives approximate to the well-known Palceo-
therium, of the European Oligogene, and the two
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 267
groups have been included in the same family
P alee ot her iidce. Since, however, the palaeotheres
seem to form a non-progressive line of their own
while the anchitheres are evidently ancestral to
the horses, it seems preferable to keep them apart ;
in fact, to take a middle course between those
who class Anchitherium in the Palceotheriidce and
those who include it in the Equidce. The range
of the genus extends from France to Bavaria and
Austria.
In the John Day beds which connect the
Left Upper Molar Tooth of Anchitherium
pa, paracone ; me, metacone ; //, protoconule ; //, paraconule ; /, anterior
pillar, or protocone ; hy, posterior pillar, or hypocone
Miocene with the Oligocene of North America,
Anchitherium is represented by the nearly re-
lated Miohippus. This genus comes very close
to the undermentioned Mesohippus of the White
River Oligocene, but is represented by species of
larger size (and therefore nearer Anchitherium),
the typical one standing about 6 hands (24 inches)
at the shoulder. The main differences, other than
size, between the two genera are to be found in the
268 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
circumstances that the splint representing the fifth
toe on the outer side of the fore- foot is smaller
in Miohippus (pi. i. fig. 2) than in Mesohippus,
and also that the cheek-teeth are somewhat more
complex. The figure on p. 267 of an upper molar
of Anchitherium illustrates the elements which
go to form the constituents of the horse's molar.
As will be inferred from the preceding para-
graph, Mesohippus differs from Anchitherium by
the presence of a rudiment of the outermost or fifth
digit of the fore-foot, while it is further distin-
guished by the absence, or at all events very
slight trace, of the pits in the crowns of the
incisors. Yet another feature is the presence on
the heel-bone, or calcaneum, of a small facet for
the articulation of the fibula, which is thus proved
to be complete. It should be added that in
Anchitherium, Miohippus, and Mesohippus the
"wolf-tooth," that is, the first premolar, of the
horse is fully developed in both jaws, although
considerably smaller than the second premolar.
As canines were developed in both jaws, the full
typical series of 44 teeth was present, viz. : i. f ,
c- T» /• f > m- t- The typical Mesohippus bairdi,
from the Oligocene of Dakota, was a slenderly
built animal, apparently well adapted for speed,
but standing only about 4^- hands (18 inches) at
the withers. M. intermedius was a larger but
apparently unprogressive type.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 269
The last genus referable to the Anchitheriidce
appears to be Anchilophus, of the Upper Eocene
of Europe, which seems to connect in some
degree the preceding genera with the undermen-
tioned Packynolophus, so far at least as the cheek-
teeth are concerned ; the limbs being imperfectly
known. All the species were small.
When Sir Richard Owen,1 in the year 1839,
described the imperfect skull of a small ungulate
mammal, of the approximate size of a fox, from the
Lower Eocene London Clay of the cliffs at Studd
Hill, near Herne Bay, Kent, under the name of
Hyracotherium leporinum, he had no conception
of the epoch-making importance of the discovery.
Indeed, the serial position of the genus, which
is now known to be the most primitive member
of the horse line, could not be even approximately
determined, its describer believing it to be most
nearly related to a small Eocene pig-like animal
known as Cheer op otamus. Subsequently, when
its affinities became better known, the genus was
placed in the extinct family Lophiodontidce,\y\)\fadi by
the genus Lophiodon of the Middle Eocene of Europe.
The lophiodons are, however, now known to be
related to the tapirs, which form a line quite dis-
tinct from the horse-group. By Professor Osborn
the hyracotheres are included in the same family
1 Trans. Geol. Soc. London, ser. 2, vol. vi. p. 203 ; see also
British Fossil Mammals and Birds, London, 1846, p. 419.
270 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
as the Equidce, but, as already mentioned, this is
not a satisfactory arrangement ; and the genus is
accordingly regarded here as the type of a distinct
family — the Hyracotheriidce .
The members of this family are small and primi-
tive perissodactyle ungulates characterised by the
presence of four front and three hind toes, low-
crowned cheek-teeth, of which the upper molars
are usually much more complicated than the pre-
molars, and carry two oblique transverse crests,
each partially divided into two cusps, and connected
together by a longitudinal outer wall, a complete
ulna and fibula in the limbs, and the socket of
the eye entirely open behind. In place of the
cannon-bone of the horse, the basal portion of the
hind-foot is formed by three metatarsal bones, of
which the lateral pair are not smaller or shorter
than the middle one ; a similar structure ob-
taining in the case of the three main digits of
the fore-foot, where the basal bones are known
as metacarpals. In both limbs the lateral toes
touched the ground, the whole foot being thus
adapted for walking on the borders of swamps or
marshes or the muddy or sandy shores of lakes.
From the simple upper molar of Hyracotherium,
with practically six columns on the crown, which
coalesce into a pair of cross-crests and an outer
wall, is derived by imperceptible gradations the tall
and complex molar of the horse ; the evolution
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 271
of the individual teeth being accompanied by a
progressive increase of the premolars, till these,
with the exception of the first of the series (which
undergoes degeneration), in place of being small
and simple, become as large and complex as the
molars.
It is noteworthy that in Europe the Hyraco-
theriidce appear to have died out at the close of
the Eocene epoch without leaving descendants ;
if, however, the palaeontology of Eastern Central
Asia were known, we might find a transition to
the Equidce as complete as in North America.
The latest and most specialised member of
the Hyracotheriidce appears to be the imperfectly
known Epihippus of the Upper or Uinta Eocene
of Utah, where it is represented by the two species
E. gracilis and E. mutensis. From the other
American genera of the family Epihippus is dis-
tinguished by all the upper premolars, with the
exception of the first, being as complex as the
molars ; the cross-crests being nearly complete.
The lateral toes of both fore and hind feet are
relatively smaller than in the undermentioned earlier
genera, and would thus seem to have taken a
smaller share in supporting the weight of the body.
It is somewhat remarkable that in the matter of
size the two species mentioned above are a little
inferior to the representatives of the earlier genera.
Lophiotherium, of the Upper Eocene of Europe,
272 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
seems to be closely allied to Epihippus, having
upper premolars of the same complex type.
The Middle, or Bridger, Eocene of North
America has yielded remains of animals referred to
two distinct genera, namely Orohippus and Helio-
hippus, of which the latter is known only by the
teeth. Whether these are truly distinct, or whether
they are really separable from the contemporary
European Pachynolophus, which was named at a
much earlier date, may, however, be a matter of
opinion. In justification of this assertion it may
be well to mention that the limitations of genera
and larger groups of animals are purely arbitrary,
and therefore dependent in great measure on in-
dividual opinion.1
Orohippus includes several species, such as
O. agilis and O. major. In structure these show a
slight advai\caon the undermentioned Protorohippus,
and are likewise slightly superior in size. The
foot-structure is much the same in the two, but
the cheek-teeth are rather more complex, the third
and fourth upper premolars being molar-like, and
the second approximating to the same type. The
gap between the front and the cheek-teeth is also
somewhat longer.
The last group of the family is represented by
1 See an article by Mr. L. Clark, " On the Purpose and some
Principles of Systematic Zoology," in the Popular Science Monthly^
September 1911.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 273
certain Lower Eocene species which have been
referred to the three genera Protorohippus, Eohippus,
and Hyracotherium, of which the last (also known
as Plioiophus] is European, while the other two
are American. Whether they may not all be
included in Hyracotherium is a matter of individual
opinion. The species described as Protorohippus
ventricolus, from the Wind River Eocene, was
somewhat larger than Eohippus pernix, standing
about 3^ hands (14 inches) at the shoulder, and
having rather longer limbs, in the front pair of which
the vestige of the thumb, or first toe, seems to have
disappeared, while the shortening of the fifth, or
outermost, toe is another step in the direction of a
three-toed foot. In the upper cheek-teeth there is
fuller development of the cross-crests, and while
the fourth premolar is molar-like, the third is
partially so. Hitherto remains of the genus have
been found only in Colorado and Wyoming.
Eohippus, as represented by E. pernix, of the
Wasatch Eocene of North America, has been so
well described by Dr. Lull,1 that his words may be
quoted in extenso. After observing that the upper
cheek-teeth are very similar to th6se of the allied
European genus, he goes on to say that they
display a sign of advance " in that the cross-crests
are somewhat more distinct than in Hyracother-
, and, unlike the latter, the fourth premolar is
1 Op. tit., p. 1 7 1.
S
274 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
beginning to assume the form of a true molar. The
hand [fore-foot] bore four digits, with a vestige of
the first (thumb) in the form of a splint-bone
probably entirely concealed within the skin.*/xThe
more progressive hind-foot had but three toes, with
a remnant of the fifth.
Front View of the Bones of the Left Fore (a) and Hind (b) Feet of the
American Eohippus pernix, % natural size
" Eohippus was a small animal about eleven
inches in height at the shoulder, and in general
suggestive of the carnivores rather than of the
ungulates of to-day. The back was arched, the
head and neck were short, and the limbs of
moderate length, showing no especial adapta-
tion for speed. This genus has a remarkable
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 275
geographical range, having apparently originated in
Western Europe (England) and migrated by way
of Asia and what is now Bering Strait as far south-
east as New Mexico. This migration of Eohippus
shifted the scene of the evolutionary drama to our
own country [America], for, while the remains of
succeeding genera are increasingly numerous in
North American rocks from the Wasatch on, it is
only from time to time that European representa-
tives appear, in each case evidently derived from
migratory North American types."
Lastly we have the European Hyracotherium^
which, as mentioned above, apparently differs from
the allied American genus solely by the somewhat
simpler character of the upper cheek-teeth, in which
the cross-crests still retain their two constituent
tubercles. Remains of the typical H. leporinum
have been obtained from the London Clay near
Herne Bay, Sheppey, and Harwich (Pliolophus\
and also from the Red Crag of Suffolk, which, as
in this case, often contains fossils washed out of the
London Clay. The remains include several more
or less imperfect skulls and lower jaws and one
example of the femur.
Here our knowledge of the evolutionary history
of the horse comes abruptly to an end. It is true,
indeed, that the late Professor E. D. Cope hailed
a still earlier animal, Phenacodus primcevus, of the
basement, or Puerco, Eocene of America, as the
276 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
ultimate ancestor of the horse. But, as pointed
out by Dr. Lull,1 this animal is far too large, and
in some respects too specialised, to have occupied
such a position. Nevertheless, its five-toed feet
Front View of the Bones of the Right Fore (a) and Hind (b) Feet of the
American Eocene Phenacodus primcevus, £ natural size
afford a fair idea of what those of the ultimate
ancestor may be expected to have been like.
Phenacodus belongs to a group of early and
generalised ungulates forming a suborder — the
1 op. dt., p. 163.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 277
Condylarthra — of lower grade than either Perisso-
dactyla or Artiodactyla. All the members of this
group had five-toed fore and hind feet, and like-
wise rested a considerable portion of the sole
upon the ground in the original plantigrade
fashion — a feature in which they differ markedly
from the horse and its relatives, which walk only
on the very tips of their toes in the extreme of
the modern digitigrade style. The two series of
small bones of the wrist (carpus) and ankle (tarsus)
joints are also arranged in distinct vertical rows,
without that interlocking which characterises these
portions of the skeleton in the Perissodactyla. .
In concluding this chapter brief reference may
be made to a few of the more striking features
which characterise the long chain of progressive
evolution from the Eocene Hyracotherium to the
modern Equus. Two factors have evidently been
predominant in guiding this evolution, namely, the
necessity of collecting and assimilating food and
of attaining a high degree of speed. " To the
one," as Dr. Lull remarks, "the horse owes the
marvellous perfection of the grazing mechanism,
as seen in the lengthened jaws and in the teeth ;
to the other, the fleet limbs and graceful contour
of the body and the increase in stature. These
adaptations are entirely mechanical, and, while
tending toward greater and greater perfection
on the whole, are not always of a progressive
278 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
character ; as the loss of side-toes is distinctly retro-
gressive."
The adaptation for speed is most noticeable
in the progressive lengthening of the limbs, and
the gradual discarding of the lateral toes. The
limb-elongation is most marked in the lower
segments, more especially the foot ; the thigh-
bone, or femur, and the humerus, or upper bone
of the fore-leg, displaying much less proportionate
lengthening. This causes the powerful muscles
necessary to work the limbs to be situated close
to, or even within, the body ; while they act upon
the extremities by means of the long, slender
tendons, which are as tough and elastic as steel,
and whose development in the modern racehorse
is expressed in horse-dealing language as "plenty
of bone." Concurrently with these changes in
the bones of the limbs, the sole of the foot is
gradually raised from the ground, till eventually
£he whole weight of the body rests on the tips
of the toes, whose terminal armament becomes
modified from a narrow claw or nail into a broad
hoof. Apparently, in herbivorous animals adapted
for running on hard ground, this elevation of the
sole of the foot is always accompanied by a re-
duction in the number of the toes, for we find
the same thing occurring in antelopes, deer, and
giraffes, although in a somewhat different fashion
and to a rather less marked degree.
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 279
All these changes culminate in producing not
only a strong and yet graceful type of limb, moving
rapidly in the same fashion as a short pendulum,
and thus combining rapid movement with a long
stride, but they also cause the centre of gravity of
the body to be raised high above the ground, which
is likewise a mechanical advantage in galloping.
"The pendulum-like motion of the limbs,"
writes Dr. Lull, " being all in one plane, the joints
become pulley-like through the formation of inter-
locking tongues and grooves, which effectually
limit any lateral motion. There is also a reduction
of the ulna in the fore-arm and of the fibula in the
lower leg, as these bones, especially the former, are
associated with more varied movement.
44 In this evolution the hind-foot is the more pro-
gressive, as the fore-limb retains its general utility
for a longer time. Finally, however, after vast
ages, the fore-foot overtakes the hind, and thence-
forth the degree of evolution in each is the same.
Still, it is curious to note that, among living horses,
in instances of re version 'to ancestral conditions the
fore-foot is more apt to exhibit well-developed
atavistic toes, showing that in it the reminiscent
tendencies are stronger."
As regards the evolution of the teeth, Dr. Lull
has summarised the case so graphically that his
own words may once more be quoted in full : —
"In the evolution of the teeth," he writes, "we
28o THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES
again find both progression and retrogression,
as in the modern horse the canine and the first
premolar are alike reduced to vestiges and are
often entirely absent. The early horses had grinding
teeth of a very generalised pattern ; indeed, it is
often a matter of great difficulty to distinguish the
teeth of these horses from those of the ancestors of
what are now widely removed orders of mammals.
On their crowns these teeth bore little cusps or
prominences, which in the quadrangular molars just
begin to grow together into the crests that later
form the greater portion of the grinding surface.
The premolars are at first simple in character, but
as time goes on they become successively molar-
like, beginning with the hindermost. This is not
true of the anterior one, which, as we have seen, is
finally reduced to an often disappearing remnant.
" During the forest-dwelling period in the
history of the horses, and while they lived upon
succulent meadow-grasses, the teeth, though in-
creasing in size with the entire organism, remain
short-crowned. Upon the expansion of the
prairies, however, and the adoption of the harsh
grasses as a main staple of food, the tooth of the
horse changes in character, becoming elongate,
prismatic in shape, and the depression lying
between the crests filling with a substance known
as cement, which strengthens the entire tooth.
The result is a long columnar structure made up of
THE FORERUNNERS OF THE HORSE 281
three sor.ts of material of different degrees of hard-
ness— enamel, dentine, and cement, which through
differential wear always present a roughened grind-
ing surface.
" During the early life of the horse the tooth is
continuously growing, and, in spite of the fact that
it must constantly move outward to compensate for
wear, the root penetrates deeper and deeper within
the jaw until fully formed. The outward move-
ment still continuing, the tooth now gradually
shortens until in extreme old age it is practically
consumed. The total length of the tooth is nicely
calculated to meet the needs of a full measure of
life."
That all these marvellous changes and adapta-
tions are not due to any mere " blind struggle for
existence" or " survival of the fittest," but that
they were directly designed and controlled by an
Omniscient and Omnipotent Creator, is the settled
I _ ^ _£ ^* v^
and final opinion of the author of this volume.
t
t
INDEX
ABNORMALITIES in horse, 59
African wild ass, 220
Age-determination by teeth, 31
Albinism, 54
Anau horse, 95
AnchilophuS) 269
Anchippodus, 265
AnchitheriidcE) 263
Anchitherium, 266
Arab horse, 1 50
ArchceohippuS) 265
Artiodactyla, 3
A sinus equuleus, 85
A sinus fossiltS) 100
Ass, 215; wild, 218; Nubian,
220 ; Somali, 220 ; Socotran,
221 ; Indian, 223 ; Poitou, 223
BALEARIC horse, 137
Barb, 164
Bartlett's Childers, 167
Batak pony, 1 1 1
Belgian horse, 140
Bible horses, 145
Birthplace of Equidce, 68
Bontequagga, 195 ; white, 202
British horses, 117
BurchelFs zebra, 196
Burmese pony, 1 1 1
Byerley Turk, 167
CALLOSITIES, 44
Cannon-bone, 14
Carpal callosities of wart-hogs, 49
Carpal pores of pigs, 49
Carpus, 17
Celtic pony, 100, 122
Cheek-teeth of horse, 33
Chestnuts, 44
Chigetai, 180
Cleveland Bay, 128
Clydesdale horse, 131
Coat-colour, inheritance of, 57
Coat-colour and speed, 59
Coffin-bone, 16
Coloration of horse, 54
Colouring of Equidcz, 52
Colouring, protective, in zebra
group, 205
Connemara ponies, 120
Crumen, 23
DAMARA zebra, 214
Daow, 213
Dappling in horses, 53
Darley Arabian, 167
Dartmoor ponies, 119
Dauw, 213
Desert type, 95
DesmathippuS) 265
Distribution of horse tribe, 66
Dongola horse, 162, 165
Donkey, 215
Drenthe horses, 129, 142
Dun horse, 105
Dvele-hest, 122
Dziggetai, 180
ECLIPSE, 167
Eel-dun horse, 105
Eohippus, 273
Epihippus, 271
Equcs indomitce, 118
Equcs silvestres, 118
EquidcE) 12; distribution of, 66;
birthplace of, 68
Equus, 4, 244
Equus adamiticuS) 93 ; afiicanus,
162, 220 ; agilis, 100; annectans,
199 ; antiquorum^ 197 ; asiaticust
283
284
INDEX
162; asz'nus, 215; berberensis,
192 ; boehmi, 198 ; burchelli^ 196;
caballuS) 103 ; castaneus, 182 ;
celticus, 100, 121 ; chapmani*
198 ; crawshayi, 199 ; yfrtf/, 209 ;
fossilis, 92, 95 ; fraternus, 246 ;
germanicus, 95, 97 ; giganteus,
246 ; goldfinchi, 202 ; gracilis^
100; granti, 199; grevyi^ 190;
greyiy 195 ; hagenbecki, 91 ; ^ar/-
mannce, 219; hemionus, 180;
hemippuS) 184 ; indicus, 182 ;
jalla, 199 ; kiang, 178 ; latifrons^
97 ; libycus, 100, 162 ; maculatus,
190 ; namadicus, 116 ; nehringi,
95,96, 124 ; 0«dg?r, 181 \penriceii
2r& ; plicidenS) 93 ; prsevalskii,
87^ 92, 107 ; pumpellii, 95, 97 ;
quagga, 192 ; robustus, 95, 101 ;
selousi, 198 ; sivalensis, 247 ;
somaliensis, 220 ; spelcEus^ 94, 97 ;
stenonis, 246 ; taniopus, 220 ;
wahlbergi) 197 ; zebra, 211
Ergot, 41
Erythrism, 54
Even-toed ungulates, 2 —
Exmoor ponies, 119
FEET of horse, 13 —
Feet of ungulates, £_
Feral horses, 170
Fetlock, 1 6
Fjord-hest, 122
Flying Childers, 167
Foa's zebra, 210
Forehead-star of horse, 55
Forerunners of horse, 239
Forest type, 95, 96, 101
Frog, 41
GALLOP of horse, 63
Galloway, 127
Garron, 127
Ghor-khar, 180, 182
Godolphin Barb, 167
Great horse, 131
Gravy's zebra, 190
HANOVERIAN horse, 142
Hartmann's zebra, 214
Heliohippus, 272
Hindu myths of horse, 69
Hinney, 221
Hipparion, 256
Hippidium, 251
Hippodactylus, 260
HippotigriS) 185
Hippotigris hartmanncc, 214
Hock, 17
Hoof, 41
Horns in horses, 60
Horse, origin of name, I ; family,
12 ; structure of font. 13 ; speci-
alisation, 1 8 ; skull, 19 ; preor-
bital depression, 22 ; teeth, 27 ;
succession of teeth, 31; 'age-
determination by teeth, 31 ;
cheek-teeth, 33; succession of
teeth, 34 ; masticating power,
38 ; longevity of, 39 ; hoof of, 41 ;
frog of, 41 ; ergot of, 41 ; chest-
nuts or callosities of, 44; tribe,
colouring of, 52 ; dappling of,
53 ; coloration of, 54 ; forehead-
star, 55 ; inheritance of coat-
colour, 57 ; abnormalities in, 59 ;
horns in, 60 ; gallop, 63 ; Hindu
myths of, 69; wild, 71 ; Stone
Age, 77, 92 ; Prehistoric, 77, 92 ;
Przewalski's, 87 ; Anau, 95 ;
desert type, 95 ; Solutre, 97 ;
Madelaine, 97, 99 ; forest type,
95, 96, 101 ; steppe type, 95, 97,
99 ; plateau-type, 100 ; dun, 105 ;
Norwegian, 105, 122 ; Kathiawar,
113; Turkoman, 113; Tibetan,
114 ; Narbada, 116 ; British, 117;
pack, 119; Cleveland, 128; Suf-
folk, 129 ; Clydesdale, 131 ; Great,
131; shire, 131; Schlettstadt, 1 36 ;
Balearic, 137 ; Percheron, 138 ;
Belgian, 140 ; Hanoverian, 142 ;
Hungarian, 143 ; Kalmuk, 144 ;
in the Bible, 145 ; Turkish, 145 ;
Turkoman, 148 ; Spanish, 149,
165 ; Kurdish, 147 ; Persian, 147 ;
Arab, 150; Barb, 164; Dongola,
162, 165 ; thoroughbred, 166 ;
feral, 170
Hybrids, 225
Hyperhippidium, 253
HypohippuS) 264
INDEX
285
Hyracotheriidce, 269
Hyracotherium, 270
INDIAN ass, 223
Indian ghor-khar, 182
Inheritance of coat-colour, 57
JAVA pony, 112
Jennet, 165
KALMUK horse, 144
Kathiawar horse, 113
Kiang, 178
Knee, 17
Kobdo onager, 183
Kulan, 1 80
Kurdish horse, 147
LACHRYMAL gland, 23
Larmier, 23
Longevity of horse, 39
Macrauchenia, 33
Madelaine horse, 97, 99
Mallenders, 44
Manipuri pony, in
" Mark " in teeth, 29
Markham Arabian, 166
Mastication, 38
Melanism, 54
Merychippus, 254
MesohippuS) 268
Milk-teeth, 30
Miohippus, 267
Molars, 33
Mongolian tarpan, 82, 107 ; pony,
108
Mule, 225
NARBADA horse, 116
Neohipparion, 258
New Forest ponies, 118
Norwegian horse, 105, 122
Nubian wild ass, 220
ODD-TOED ungulates, 3
Onohippidium, 251
Orkney ponies, 126
Orohippus, 272
PachynolophuS) 272
Pack-horse, 119
Parahippus, 265
Pastern, 16
Penrice's zebra, 214
Percheron horse, 138
Perissodactyla, 3
Persian ghor-khar, 183
Persian horses, 147
Persimmon, 167
PkacochceruS) carpal callosities, 49
Phenacodus^ 275
Pigs, carpal pores, 49
Pillars of teeth, 36
Plateau type, 100
PliohippuS) 250
Pliolophus, 275
Poitou ass, 223
Pony, Celtic, 100, 122 ; Mongolian,
108 ; Yarkand, no ; Batak, in ;
Burmese, in; Manipuri, in;
Javan, 112; New Forest, 118;
Exmoor, 119; Dartmoor, 119;
Connemara, 120 ; Welsh, 120 ;
Shetland, 124; Orkney, 126
Prehistoric horse, 77, 92
Premolars, 33
Preorbital depression, 22
Protective colouring, 205
Protohippus, 254
ProtorohippuS) 273
Przewalski's horse, 87, 107
QUAGGA, 184, 194
RHINOCEROS, 5
Rhino cerotidcBj 5
SALLENDERS, 44
Schlettstadt horse, 136
Shetland ponies, 124
Shire horse, 131
Skull of horse, 19
Socotran ass, 221
Solutre? horse, 97
Somali wild ass, 220
Spanish horses, 149, 165
Specialisation of horse, 18
Speed and coat-colour, 59
Splint-bones, 14
Steppe type, 95, 97, 99
Stockwell, his gait, 62
286
INDEX
Stone Age horse, 77, 92
Stud, 52
Succession of teeth in horsey I, 34
Suffolk horse, 129
Syrian onager or wild ass, 184
TANGHAN, 114
Tapir, 6
Tapiridce^ 6
Tarpan, 71, 79, 82, 95, 107
Tarpani, 82
Tarsus, 17
Teeth of horse, 27, 33 ; wearing of,
39
Third trochanter, abnormal, 62
Thoatherium, 18
Thoroughbred horse, 166
Tibetan horse, 114
Turkish horse, 145
Turkoman horse, 113, 148
UNGULATA, 2
WARD'S zebra, 202
Wart-hogs, carpal callosities, 49
Wearing of teeth, 39
Welsh ponies, 120
White bontequagga, 202
Wild ass, 218 ; Syrian, 184
Wild horses, 71, 79
Wolf-tooth, 34
YARKAND pony, no
Yo-to-tze, 86
ZEBRA, 187, 210 ; Grevy's, 190
Burchell's, 196; Foa's, 210
Hartmann's, 214 ; Damara, 214
Penrice's, 214
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON &* Co.
Edinburgh &•> London
Tfajj
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