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Show 54 HORSES. CHAP. II. . '1 . so that a tailless raco mJ.g ht cessively three foals Without t~l s' f doers ancl cats. A have been formed like the. tmll~ss ::c~sa:e fri~zlcd hair, and Russian breed of horses JS satd . occasiona1ly born, · p . cruay horses a1e Azara 2 4 relates that m awo . l'k that on the head of d d ith ba1r I e but are generally cstroye ' V: 'tt d even to half-breeds: hi uli . · ty 1s transm1 e a negro; and t s pee an . h t ·h horses have short it is a curious case of correlatiOn t t su~uliar shape like those mans an d tal.ls , and their hoofs are o a pe of a mule. . h t the long-continued selec- It is scarcely possible to doubt t a h been the chief agent in tion of qualities serviceable to m;n f ~l:e horse. Look at a draythe formation of the several bre~ sh~ is to draw heavy weights, horse, and see how well adapte lli d wild animal. The and how unlike in appearance tohany a ·oceecded from the com-b · k own to ave PI English race- orse IS n d B bs . but selection and . bl d f A. bs Turks an ar ' mmgled oo o ra ' 1 .' ·y different animal from training have to. gether ma.d~ 110: aivde~ ho evidently knows . k A. a wnter m n Ia, w h1s parent-stoc s. s " 1 k'na at our present the pure Arab wel1, asks, who now, . o~ ~h~t they were the breed of race-horses, could have cohncctve d Afi·I·can mare?" · f th A ·ab orse an · I:esult of the unw? o o .. I that in running for the Good- The improvement IS so mmkeu c f A b' n Turkish and d Cup " tho first descendants o ra m ' . ' d woo . t f 18 lbs wmaht · an Persian horses, are allowed a discoun _o d. . t of 36lbs 25 l on both parents are of these countnes a tscoun . ;t\s notorious that the Arabs have long be~n .as ~aref~l abo:~ the edi ree of their horses as we are, and this tmphes great a . conJnue~ care in breeding. Seeing what has been don:a~~ Encrland by careful breeding, can we doubt that the A_ mu;t likewise have produced during the course of centuries a marked effect on the qualities of their horses? But. we may go much farther back in time, for in the most ancient lrn~wn book, the Bible, we hear ~f- studs carefully kept for breedmg, 24 'QuadrupMes du Paraguay,' tom. ii. p. 333. 2~ Prof. Low, • Domesticated Animals,' p. 546. With respect _to the ':rit~r in India, see 'India Sportmg RevJew, vol. ii. p. 181. As Lawrence has remarked (''I' he Horse,' p. U)," perhaps no instance has ever occurred of a three-part bred horse (i.e. a horse, one of whose ?ran~parcnts was of impme blood) savwg his distance in running two milc.s ~th tborou,.hbred racers." Some few Illstance: nre on record of seven-eighths racers having been successful. CIIAP.ll. THEIR COLOURS AND STRIPES. 55 and of horses imported at high prices from various countries.26 We may therefore conclude that, whether or not the various existing breeds of the l1orsc have proceeded from one or more aboriginal stocks, yet that a gl'(~at amount of change has resulted from the direct action of the conditions of life, and probably a still greater amount from the long-continued selection by man of slight individuR.l differences. With several domesticated quadrupeds and birds, certain coloured marks arc oW1er strongly inherited or tend to reappear after having long-' boon lost. As this subject will hereafter be soon to Le of importance, I will gi vc a full account of the colouring of hor ·cs. AU English breeds, however unlike in size and appearance, and several of those in India and the Malay archipelago, present a sin1ilar range and eli vcrsity of colour. The English rnce-horso, however, is said 27 never to be dun-coloured; but as dun nnd cream-coloured horses are considered by the Arabs as worthless, "and :fit only for Jews to ride," 28 these tints may have been removed Ly long-continued selection. Horses of every colour, a.ucl of such widely different kinds as drayhorses, cob·, and ponies, are all occasionally dappled,29 in the same manner as is so conspicuous with grey horses. This fact does not throw any clear light on the colouring of the aboriginal horse, but is a case of analogous variation, for even asses are sometimes dappled, and I have seen, in the British Museum, a hybrid from the ass and zebra dappled on its hinder quarters. By the expression analogous variation (and it is one that I shall often have occasion to use) I mean a variation occurring in a species or variety which resembles a normal character in another and distinct species or variety. .Analogous variations may arise, as will be explained in a future chapter, 2 6 Prof. Gervais (in his 'Hist. Nat. Mamm.,' tom. ii. p. 144) has collected mnny facts on this li eatl. For instance, Solomon (Kings, b. i. ch. x. v. 28) bought horses in Egypt at a high price. 27 ' 'fhe Field,' July 13th, 1861, p. 42. 28 E. Vernon Ilat·court, 'Sporting in Algeria,' p. 26. 29 I state this from my own observations made during several years ou the coloms of horses. I have seen creamcoloured, light-dun and mouse-dun horses dappled, which I mention because it has been stated (Martin, ' History of the Horse,' p. 134) that dum:l are ucver dappled. Martin (p. 205) refers to dappled asses. In • 'l'ho Farrier ' (Loudon, 1828, pp. 453, 455) there are some good remarks on the dappling of horses; and likewise in Col. Hmmlton Smith on ' 'l'he Ilorso.' |