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Show 56 liORSES. CIIAl'. II. . imilar constitution having from two or mor~ ~orms w~t~ a ~or from one of two fo~·ms been exposed to sJmJ lar condrtwns, l ter inbcnted d 1 . uo-h reversion a c 1 ara~ . f. haviug reacquire t no b ir eomrnon progcmtor,-or rom by the other form from the ncestral character. both forms havm. g rever· ted to the h sa, m. e oac casionally exh 'b't l 1 d. l eo that oises . h . vV 0 shall immc mte Y s . . large part of t mr b c stnped over a t a tendency to ecom . readily pass into spo s bodies . and as we know tha~ ~tl'lp fs th. cc domestic cat and in ' · tl vanet1es o and cloudy marks m 10 ' b f the uniformly-coloured · even the cu s o several feline species- ·k on a Iio-htcr ground-we . tt d vith dark mai s b • h b lion bewg spo e ' _I' f the horse whiCh as een may suspect that the dapp 1;i 0 urprise is ~ modification or t' d by some authors WI s ' no ~~e f a tendency to become striped. ves lgc o t 'ped is in several respects an This tendency m. th e h or· so to becom,e s nf the most di.v cn:;c b roc d s, m. interesting fact. H or,s cs of fa ll cho loucr sa, doa rk stripe exton di ng a1 o ng thc various parts of the world, o t?~ b:~ this is so common that I need enter spine, from the mane to the ~ail ' horses arc transversely barred on ~ho into no particulars.so O~c~sw.n:~~ more rarely they have a distinct strJpo legs, chiefly on th? under side ' boulder of tho ass, or a broad dark patch on the shoulder, like that on the s . detn.ils J must premise thn.t representing a stripe. Before cntermg on any , . . Fig. I.-Dun J)evonshirc Pony, with shoulder, spinal, an<.l leg stripes. ao Some details arc given in 'The Farrior,' 1828, pp. 452, 455. One of the least ponies I ever saw, of the colou.r of a mouse, had a conspicuous spmal t . A small Indian chcsnut pony s npc. ark-had tho same Htripc, as had a rom ably heavy chcsnut cart-horse: Racehorses often have tho spinal stnpc. C HAP. II. THEIR COLOURS AND STRIPES. 57 the term dun-colom·cd is vague, and includes three groups of colour, viz. that between cream-colour and reddish-brown, which graduates into lightbay or light-chesnut-this, I believe, is often called fallow-dun; secondly, leaden or slate-colour or mouse-dun, which graduates into an ash-colom·; and, lastly, dal'1(-dun, between brown and black. In England I have examined a rather largo, lightly-built, fallow-dun Devonshire pony (fig. 1), with a conspicuous stripe along the back, with light transverse stripes on tho under sides of its front legs, and with four parallel stripes on each shoulder. Of these four stripes the posterior one was very minute and faint; the anterior one, on the other hand, was long and broad, but interrupted in tho middle, and truncated at its lower extremity, with the anterior angle produced into a long tapering point. I mention this latter fact because the shoulder-stripe of the ass occasionally presents exactly the same appearance. I have had an outline and description sent to me of a small, purely-bred, light fallow-dun W clch pony, with a spinal stripe, a single transverse stripe on each leg, and three shoulder-stripes; the po. tcri01· stripe corresponding ·with that on tho shoulder of the ass was tho longest, whilst the two anterior parallel stripes, arising from the mane, decreased in length, in a I'evcrscd manner as compared with the shoulder-stripes on tho above-described Devonshire pony. I have seen a bright fallow-dun, strong cob, with its fi·ont legs transversely barred on the under sides in tho most conspicuous manner; also a dark-leaden mouse-coloured pony with similar leg stripes, but much less conspicuous; also a bright fallow-dun colt, fully threeparts thoroughbred, with very plain transverse stripes on the legs; also a chesnut-dun cart-horse with a conspicuous spinal stripe, with distinct traces of shoulder-stripes, but none on tho legs; I could add other cases. My son made a sketch for me of a large, heavy, Belgian carthorse, of a fallow-dun, with a conspicuous spinal stripe, traces of legstripes, and with two parallel (three inches apart) stripes about seven or eight inches in length on both shoulders. I have soon another rather light cart-horse, of a dirty dark cream-colour, with striped legs, and on one shoulder a largo ill-defined dark cloudy patch, and on the opposite shoulder two parallel faint stripes. All the cases yet mentioned arc duns of various tints; but Mr. W. W. Edwards has seen a nearly thoroughbred chcsnut horse which had tho spinal stripe, and distinct bars on tho legs; and I have seen two bay carriage-horses with black spinal stripes; one of these horses bad on each shoulder a light shoulder-stripe, and the other had a broad black ill-dofmcd sti·ipe, running obliquely half-way down each shoulder; neither had leg-stripes. The most interesting case which I have met with occmTed in a colt of my own breeding. A bay mare (descended fi·om a dark-brown Flemish marc by a light grey Turcoman horse) was put to Hercules, a thoroughbred dark bay, whoso sire (Kingston) and dam were both bays. The colt ultimately turned out brown; but when only a fortnight old it was a drrty bay, shaded with mouse-grey, and in pa1'ts with a yellowish tint : it had only a trace of the spinal sti·ipe, with a few obscme transverse bars on tho legs; but almost the whole body was marked with very narrow dark stripes, in most parts so obscure as to be visible only in certain lights, like the |