HORSE. DIFFERENCES IN THE BREEDS—INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY OF—DIRECT
EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE—CAN WITHSTAND MUCH COLD—BREEDS MUCH
MODIFIED BY SELECTION—COLOURS OF THE HORSE—DAPPLING—DARK STRIPES ON THE
SPINE, LEGS, SHOULDERS, AND FOREHEAD—DUN-COLOURED HORSES MOST
FREQUENTLY STRIPED—STRIPES PROBABLY DUE TO REVERSION TO THE PRIMITIVE
STATE OF THE HORSE.
ASSES. BREEDS OF—COLOUR OF—LEG- AND SHOULDER-STRIPES—SHOULDER-STRIPES
SOMETIMES ABSENT, SOMETIMES FORKED.
The history of the Horse is lost in antiquity. Remains of this
animal in a domesticated condition have been found in the Swiss
lake-dwellings, belonging to the Neolithic period.[1] At the
present time the number of breeds is great, as may be seen by
consulting any treatise on the Horse.[2] Looking only to the native
ponies of Great Britain, those of the Shetland Isles, Wales, the
New Forest, and Devonshire are distinguishable; and so it is,
amongst other instances, with each separate island in the great
Malay archipelago.[3] Some of the breeds present great differences
in size, shape of ears, length of mane, proportions of the body,
form of the withers and hind quarters, and especially in the head.
Compare the race-horse, dray-horse, and a Shetland pony in size,
configuration, and disposition; and see how much greater the
difference is than between the seven or eight other living species
of the genus Equus.
Of individual variations not known to characterise particular
breeds, and not great or injurious enough to be called
monstrosities, I have not collected many cases. Mr. G. Brown, of
the Cirencester Agricultural College, who has particularly attended
to the dentition of our domestic animals, writes to me that he has
“several times noticed eight permanent incisors instead of six in
the jaw.” Male horses only should have canines, but they are
occasionally found in the mare, though a small size.[4] The number
of ribs on each side is properly eighteen, but Youatt[5] asserts
that not unfrequently there are nineteen, the additional one being
always the posterior rib. It is a remarkable fact that the ancient
Indian horse is said in the Rig-Vêda to have only seventeen ribs;
and M. Piétrement,[6] who has called attention to this subject,
gives various reasons for placing full trust in this statement,
more especially as during former times the Hindoos carefully
counted the bones of animals. I have seen several notices of
variations in the bones of the leg; thus Mr. Price[7] speaks of an
additional bone in the hock, and of certain abnormal appearances
between the tibia and astragalus, as quite common in Irish horses,
and not due to disease. Horses have often been observed, according
to M. Gaudry,[8] to possess a trapezium and a rudiment of a fifth
metacarpal bone, so that “one sees appearing by monstrosity, in the
foot of the horse, structures which normally exist in the foot of
the Hipparion,”—an allied and extinct animal. In various countries
horn-like projections have been observed on the frontal bones of
the horse: in one case described by Mr. Percival 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.[9] Azara 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.
That there has been much inherited variation in the horse cannot be
doubted, when we reflect on the number of the breeds existing
throughout the world or even within the same country, and when we
know that they have largely increased in number since the earliest
known records.[10] Even in so fleeting a character as colour,
Hofacker[11] found that, out of 216 cases in which horses of the
same colour were paired, only eleven pairs produced foals of a
quite different colour. As Professor Low[12] has remarked, the
English race-horse offers the best possible evidence of
inheritance. The pedigree of a race-horse is of more value in
judging of its probable success than its appearance: “King Herod”
gained in prizes 201,505 pounds sterling, and begot 497 winners;
“Eclipse” begot 334 winners.
Whether the whole amount of difference between the various breeds
has arisen under domestication is doubtful. From the fertility of
the most distinct breeds[13] when crossed, naturalists have
generally looked at all the breeds as having descended from a
single species. Few will agree with Colonel H. Smith, who believes
that they have descended from no less than five primitive and
differently coloured stocks.[14] But as several species and
varieties of the horse existed[15] during the later tertiary
periods, and as Rutimeyer found differences in the size and form of
the skull in the earliest known domesticated horses,[16] we ought
not to feel sure that all our breeds are descended from a single
species. The savages of North and South America easily reclaim the
feral horses, so that there is no improbability in savages in
various quarters of the world having domesticated more than one
native species or natural race. M. Sanson[17] thinks that he has
proved that two distinct species have been domesticated, one in the
East, and one in North Africa; and that these differed in the
number of their lumbar vertebra and in various other parts; but M.
Sanson seems to believe that osteological characters are subject to
very little variation, which is certainly a mistake. At present no
aboriginal or truly wild horse is positively known to exist; for it
is commonly believed that the wild horses of the East are escaped
domestic animals.[18] If therefore our domestic breeds are
descended from several species or natural races, all have become
extinct in the wild state.
With respect to the causes of the modifications which horses have
undergone, the conditions of life seem to produce a considerable
direct effect. Mr. D. Forbes, who has had excellent opportunities
of comparing the horses of Spain with those of South America,
informs me that the horses of Chile, which have lived under nearly
the same conditions as their progenitors in Andalusia, remain
unaltered, whilst the Pampas horses and the Puno horses are
considerably modified. There can be no doubt that horses become
greatly reduced in size and altered in appearance by living on
mountains and islands; and this apparently is due to want of
nutritious or varied food. Every one knows how small and rugged the
ponies are on the Northern islands and on the mountains of Europe.
Corsica and Sardinia have their native ponies; and there were,[19]
or still are, on some islands on the coast of Virginia, ponies like
those of the Shetland Islands, which are believed to have
originated through exposure to unfavourable conditions. The Puno
ponies, which inhabit the lofty regions of the Cordillera, are, as
I hear from Mr. D. Forbes, strange little creatures, very unlike
their Spanish progenitors. Further south, in the Falkland Islands,
the offspring of the horses imported in 1764 have already so much
deteriorated in size[20] and strength that they are unfitted for
catching wild cattle with the lasso; so that fresh horses have to
be brought for this purpose from La Plata at a great expense. The
reduced size of the horses bred on both southern and northern
islands, and on several mountain-chains, can hardly have been
caused by the cold, as a similar reduction has occurred on the
Virginian and Mediterranean islands. The horse can withstand
intense cold, for wild troops live on the plains of Siberia under
lat. 56°,[21] and aboriginally the horses must have inhabited
countries annually covered with snow, for he long retains the
instinct of scraping it away to get at the herbage beneath. The
wild tarpans in the East have this instinct; and so it is, as I am
informed by Admiral Sulivan, with the horses recently and formerly
introduced into the Falkland Islands from La Plata, some of which
have run wild; this latter fact is remarkable, as the progenitors
of these horses could not have followed this instinct during many
generations in La Plata. On the other hand, the wild cattle of the
Falklands never scrape away the snow, and perish when the ground is
long covered. In the northern parts of America the horses descended
from those introduced by the Spanish conquerors of Mexico, have the
same habit, as have the native bisons, but not so the cattle
introduced from Europe.[22]
The horse can flourish under intense heat as well as under intense
cold, for he is known to come to the highest perfection, though not
attaining a large size, in Arabia and northern Africa. Much
humidity is apparently more injurious to the horse than heat or
cold. In the Falkland Islands, horses suffer much from the
dampness; and this circumstance may perhaps partly account for the
singular fact that to the eastward of the Bay of Bengal,[23] over
an enormous and humid area, in Ava, Pegu, Siam, the Malayan
archipelago, the Loo Choo Islands, and a large part of China, no
full-sized horse is found. When we advance as far eastward as
Japan, the horse reacquires his full size.[24]
With most of our domesticated animals, some breeds are kept on
account of their curiosity or beauty; but the horse is valued
almost solely for its utility. Hence semi-monstrous breeds are not
preserved; and probably all the existing breeds have been slowly
formed either by the direct action of the conditions of life, or
through the selection of individual differences. No doubt
semi-monstrous breeds might have been formed: thus Mr. Waterton
records[25] the case of a mare which produced successively three
foals without tails; so that a tailless race might have been formed
like the tailless races of dogs and cats. A Russian breed of horses
is said to have curled hair, and Azara[26] relates that in Paraguay
horses are occasionally born, but are generally destroyed, with
hair like that on the head of a negro; and this peculiarity is
transmitted even to half-breeds: it is a curious case of
correlation that such horses have short manes and tails, and their
hoofs are of a peculiar shape like those of a mule.
It is scarcely possible to doubt that the long-continued selection
of qualities serviceable to man has been the chief agent in the
formation of the several breeds of the horse. Look at a dray-horse,
and see how well adapted he is to draw heavy weights, and how
unlike in appearance to any allied wild animal. The English
race-horse is known to be derived from the commingled blood of
Arabs, Turks, and Barbs; but selection, which was carried on during
very early times in England,[27] together with training, have made
him a very different animal from his parent-stocks. As a writer in
India, who evidently knows the pure Arab well, asks, who now,
“looking at our present breed of race-horses, could have conceived
that they were the result of the union of the Arab horse and
African mare?” The improvement is so marked that in running for the
Goodwood Cup the first descendants of Arabian, Turkish, and Persian
horses, are allowed a discount of 18 pounds weight; and when both
parents are of these countries a discount of 36 pounds.[28] It is
notorious that the Arabs have long been as careful about the
pedigree of their horses as we are, and this implies great and
continued care in breeding. Seeing what has been done in England by
careful breeding, can we doubt that the Arabs must 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 Bible we hear of studs carefully kept for breeding, and
of horses imported at high prices from various countries.[29] We
may therefore conclude that, whether or not the various existing
breeds of the horse have proceeded from one or more aboriginal
stocks, yet that a great 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
individual differences.
With several domesticated quadrupeds and birds, certain coloured
marks are either strongly inherited or tend to reappear after
having been lost for a long time. As this subject will hereafter be
seen to be of importance, I will give a full account of the
colouring of horses. All English breeds, however unlike in size and
appearance, and several of those in India and the Malay
archipelago, present a similar range and diversity of colour. The
English race-horse, however, is said[30] never to be dun-coloured;
but as dun and cream-coloured horses are considered by the Arabs as
worthless, “and fit only for Jews to ride,”[31] these tints may
have been removed by long-continued selection. Horses of every
colour, and of such widely different kinds as dray-horses, cobs,
and ponies, are all occasionally dappled,[32] 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, from two or more forms with a similar constitution having
been exposed to similar conditions,—or from one of two forms having
reacquired through reversion a character inherited by the other
form from their common progenitor,—or from both forms having
reverted to the same ancestral character. We shall immediately see
that horses occasionally exhibit a tendency to become striped over
a large part of their bodies; and as we know that in the varieties
of the domestic cat and in several feline species stripes readily
pass into spots and cloudy marks—even the cubs of the
uniformly-coloured lion being spotted with dark marks on a lighter
ground—we may suspect that the dappling of the horse, which has
been noticed by some authors with surprise, is a modification or
vestige of a tendency to become striped.
Illustration: Fig. 1.—Dun Devonshire Pony, with shoulder, spinal, and
leg stripes.
This tendency in the horse to become striped is in several respects
an interesting fact. Horses of all colours, of the most diverse
breeds, in various parts of the world, often have a dark stripe
extending along the spine, from the mane to the tail; but this is
so common that I need enter into no particulars.[33] Occasionally
horses are transversely barred on the legs, chiefly on the under
side; and more rarely they have a distinct stripe on the shoulder,
like that on the shoulder of the ass, or a broad dark patch
representing a stripe. Before entering on any details I must
premise that the term dun-coloured is vague, and includes three
groups of colours, viz., that between cream-colour and
reddish-brown, which graduates into light-bay or
light-chestnut—this, I believe is often called fallow-dun;
secondly, leaden or slate-colour or mouse-dun, which graduates into
an ash-colour; and, lastly, dark-dun, between brown and black. In
England I have examined a rather large, lightly-built, fallow-dun
Devonshire pony (Figure 1), with a conspicuous stripe along the
back, with light transverse stripes on the 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 the 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 Welch pony, with a spinal stripe, a single transverse
stripe on each leg, and three shoulder-stripes; the posterior
stripe corresponding with that on the shoulder of the ass was the
longest, whilst the two anterior parallel stripes, arising from the
mane, decreased in length, in a reversed manner as compared with
the shoulder-stripes on the above-described Devonshire pony. I have
seen a bright fallow-dun cob, with its front legs transversely
barred on the under sides in the 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 three-parts
thoroughbred, with very plain transverse stripes on the legs; also
a chestnut-dun cart-horse with a conspicuous spinal stripe, with
distinct traces of shoulder-stripes, but none on the legs; I could
add other cases. My son made a sketch for me of a large, heavy,
Belgian cart-horse, of a fallow-dun, with a conspicuous spinal
stripe, traces of leg-stripes, and with two parallel (three inches
apart) stripes about seven or eight inches in length on both
shoulders. I have seen another rather light cart-horse, of a dirty
dark cream-colour, with striped legs, and on one shoulder a large
ill-defined dark cloudy patch, and on the opposite shoulder two
parallel faint stripes. All the cases yet mentioned are duns of
various tints; but Mr. W. W. Edwards has seen a nearly thoroughbred
chestnut horse which had the spinal stripe, and distinct bars on
the legs; and I have seen two bay carriage-horses with black spinal
stripes; one of these horses had on each shoulder a light
shoulder-stripe, and the other had a broad back ill-defined stripe,
running obliquely half-way down each shoulder; neither had
leg-stripes.
The most interesting case which I have met with occurred in a colt
of my own breeding. A bay mare (descended from a dark-brown Flemish
mare by a light grey Turcoman horse) was put to Hercules, a
thoroughbred dark bay, whose sire (Kingston) and dam were both
bays. The colt ultimately turned out brown; but when only a
fortnight old it was a dirty bay, shaded with mouse-grey, and in
parts with a yellowish tint: it had only a trace of the spinal
stripe, with a few obscure transverse bars on the 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
stripes which may be seen on black kittens. These stripes were
distinct on the hind-quarters, where they diverged from the spine,
and pointed a little forwards; many of them as they diverged became
a little branched, exactly in the same manner as in some zebrine
species. The stripes were plainest on the forehead between the
ears, where they formed a set of pointed arches, one under the
other, decreasing in size downwards towards the muzzle; exactly
similar marks may be seen on the forehead of the quagga and
Burchell’s zebra. When this foal was two or three months old all
the stripes entirely disappeared. I have seen similar marks on the
forehead of a fully grown, fallow-dun, cob-like horse, having a
conspicuous spinal stripe, and with its front legs well barred.
In Norway the colour of the native horse or pony is dun, varying
from almost cream-colour to dark-mouse dun; and an animal is not
considered purely bred unless it has the spinal and
leg-stripes.[34] My son estimated that about a third of the ponies
which he saw there had striped legs; he counted seven stripes on
the fore-legs and two on the hind-legs of one pony; only a few of
them exhibited traces of shoulder stripes; but I have heard of a
cob imported from Norway which had the shoulder as well as the
other stripes well developed. Colonel H. Smith[35] alludes to
dun-horses with the spinal stripe in the Sierras of Spain; and the
horses originally derived from Spain, in some parts of South
America, are now duns. Sir W. Elliot informs me that he inspected a
herd of 300 South American horses imported into Madras, and many of
these had transverse stripes on the legs and short
shoulder-stripes; the most strongly marked individual, of which a
coloured drawing was sent me, was a mouse-dun, with the
shoulder-stripes slightly forked.
In the North-Western parts of India striped horses of more than one
breed are apparently commoner than in any other part of the world;
and I have received information respecting them from several
officers, especially from Colonel Poole, Colonel Curtis, Major
Campbell, Brigadier St. John, and others. The Kattywar horses are
often fifteen or sixteen hands in height, and are well but lightly
built. They are of all colours, but the several kinds of duns
prevail; and these are so generally striped, that a horse without
stripes is not considered pure. Colonel Poole believes that all the
duns have the spinal stripe, the leg-stripes are generally present,
and he thinks that about half the horses have the shoulder-stripe;
this stripe is sometimes double or treble on both shoulders.
Colonel Poole has often seen stripes on the cheeks and sides of the
nose. He has seen stripes on the grey and bay Kattywars when first
foaled, but they soon faded away. I have received other accounts of
cream-coloured, bay, brown, and grey Kattywar horses being striped.
Eastward of India, the Shan (north of Burmah) ponies, as I am
informed by Mr. Blyth, have spinal, leg, and shoulder stripes. Sir
W. Elliot informs me that he saw two bay Pegu ponies with
leg-stripes. Burmese and Javanese ponies are frequently
dun-coloured, and have the three kinds of stripes, “in the same
degree as in England.”[36] Mr. Swinhoe informs me that he examined
two light-dun ponies of two Chinese breeds, viz., those of Shanghai
and Amoy; both had the spinal stripe, and the latter an indistinct
shoulder-stripe.
We thus see that in all parts of the world breeds of the horse as
different as possible, when of a dun-colour (including under this
term a wide range of tint from cream to dusty black), and rarely
when almost white tinged with yellow, grey, bay, and chestnut, have
the several above-specified stripes. Horses which are of a yellow
colour with white mane and tail, and which are sometimes called
duns, I have never seen with stripes.[37]
From reasons which will be apparent in the chapter on Reversion, I
have endeavoured, but with poor success, to discover whether duns,
which are so much oftener striped than other coloured horses, are
ever produced from the crossing of two horses, neither of which are
duns. Most persons to whom I have applied believe that one parent
must be dun; and it is generally asserted that, when this is the
case, the dun-colour and the stripes are strongly inherited.[38]
One case, however, has fallen under my own observation of a foal
from a black mare by a bay horse, which when fully grown was a dark
fallow-dun and had a narrow but plain spinal stripe. Hofacker[39]
gives two instances of mouse-duns (Mausrapp) being produced from
two parents of different colours and neither duns.
The stripes of all kinds are generally plainer in the foal than in
the adult horse, being commonly lost at the first shedding of the
hair.[40] Colonel Poole believes that “the stripes in the Kattywar
breed are plainest when the colt is first foaled; they then become
less and less distinct till after the first coat is shed, when they
come out as strongly as before; but certainly often fade away as
the age of the horse increases.” Two other accounts confirm this
fading of the stripes in old horses in India. One writer, on the
other hand, states that colts are often born without stripes, but
that they appear as the colt grows older. Three authorities affirm
that in Norway the stripes are less plain in the foal than in the
adult. In the case described by me of the young foal which was
narrowly striped over nearly all its body, there was no doubt about
the early and complete disappearance of the stripes. Mr. W. W.
Edwards examined for me twenty-two foals of race-horses, and twelve
had the spinal stripe more or less plain; this fact, and some other
accounts which I have received, lead me to believe that the spinal
stripe often disappears in the English race-horse when old. With
natural species, the young often exhibit characters which disappear
at maturity.
The stripes are variable in colour, but are always darker than the rest
of the body. They do not by any means always coexist on the different
parts of the body: the legs may be striped without any shoulder-stripe,
or the converse case, which is rarer, may occur; but I have never heard
of either shoulder or leg-stripes without the spinal stripe. The latter
is by far the commonest of all the stripes, as might have been
expected, as it characterises the other seven or eight species of the
genus. It is remarkable that so trifling a character as the
shoulder-stripe being double or triple should occur in such different
breeds as Welch and Devonshire ponies, the Shan pony, heavy
cart-horses, light South American horses, and the lanky Kattywar breed.
Colonel Hamilton Smith believes that one of his five supposed primitive
stocks was dun-coloured and striped; and that the stripes in all the
other breeds result from ancient crosses with this one primitive dun;
but it is extremely improbable that different breeds living in such
distant quarters of the world should all have been crossed with any one
aboriginally distinct stock. Nor have we any reason to believe that the
effects of a cross at a very remote period would be propagated for so
many generations as is implied on this view.
With respect to the primitive colour of the horse having been dun,
Colonel Hamilton Smith[41] 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 preserved 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. Dun-coloured ponies are not rare in the mountainous parts
of Devonshire, Wales, and Scotland, where the aboriginal breed
would have the best chance of being preserved. In South America in
the time of Azara, when the horse had been feral for about 250
years, 90 out of 100 horses were “bai-châtains,” and the remaining
ten were “zains,” that is brown; not more than one in 2000 being
black. In North America the feral horses show a strong tendency to
become roans of various shades; but in certain parts, as I hear
from Dr. Canfield, they are mostly duns and striped.[42]
In the following chapters on the Pigeon we shall see that a blue bird
is occasionally produced by pure breeds of various colours and that
when this occurs certain black marks invariably appear on the wings and
tail; so again, when variously coloured breeds are crossed, blue birds
with the same black marks are frequently produced. We shall further see
that these facts are explained by, and afford strong evidence in favour
of, the view that all the breeds are descended from the rock-pigeon, or
_ Columba livia,_ which is thus coloured and marked. But the appearance
of the stripes on the various breeds of the horse, when of a dun
colour, does not afford nearly such good evidence of their descent from
a single primitive stock as in the case of the pigeon: because no horse
certainly wild is known as a standard of comparison; because the
stripes when they appear are variable in character; because there is
far from sufficient evidence that the crossing of distinct breeds
produces stripes, and lastly, because all the species of the genus
Equus have the spinal stripe, and several species have shoulder and leg
stripes. Nevertheless the similarity in the most distinct breeds in
their general range of colour, in their dappling, and in the occasional
appearance, especially in duns, of leg-stripes and of double or triple
shoulder-stripes, taken together, indicate the probability of the
descent of all the existing races from a single, dun-coloured, more or
less striped, primitive stock, to which our horses occasionally revert.
THE ASS.
Four species of Asses, besides three zebras, have been described by
naturalists. There is now little doubt that our domesticated animal
is descended from the _Equus tæniopus_ of Abyssinia.[43] The ass is
sometimes advanced as an instance of an animal domesticated, as we
know by the Old Testament, from an ancient period, which has varied
only in a very slight degree. But this is by no means strictly
true; for in Syria alone there are four breeds;[44] first, a light
and graceful animal, with an agreeable gait, used by ladies;
secondly, an Arab breed reserved exclusively for the saddle;
thirdly, a stouter animal used for ploughing and various purposes;
and lastly, the large Damascus breed, with a peculiarly long body
and ears. In the South of France also there are several breeds, and
one of extraordinary size, some individuals being as tall as
full-sized horses. Although the ass in England is by no means
uniform in appearance, distinct breeds have not been formed. This
may probably be accounted for by the animal being kept chiefly by
poor persons, who do not rear large numbers, nor carefully match
and select the young. For, as we shall see in a future chapter, the
ass can with ease be greatly improved in size and strength by
careful selection, combined no doubt with good food; and we may
infer that all its other characters would be equally amenable to
selection. The small size of the ass in England and Northern Europe
is apparently due far more to want of care in breeding than to
cold; for in Western India, where the ass is used as a beast of
burden by some of the lower castes, it is not much larger than a
Newfoundland dog, “being generally not more than from twenty to
thirty inches high.”[45]
The ass varies greatly in colour; and its legs, especially the
fore-legs, both in England and other countries—for instance, in
China—are occasionally barred more plainly than those of
dun-coloured horses. Thirteen or fourteen transverse stripes have
been counted on both the fore and hind legs. With the horse the
occasional appearance of leg-stripes was accounted for by reversion
to a supposed parent-form, and in the case of the ass we may
confidently believe in this explanation, as _E. tæniopus_ is known
to be barred, though only in a slight degree, and not quite
invariably. The stripes are believed to occur most frequently and
to be plainest on the legs of the domestic ass during early
youth,[46] as likewise occurs with the horse. The shoulder-stripe,
which is so eminently characteristic of the species, is
nevertheless variable in breadth, length, and manner of
termination. I have measured one four times as broad as another,
and some more than twice as long as others. In one light-grey ass
the shoulder-stripe was only six inches in length, and as thin as a
piece of string; and in another animal of the same colour there was
only a dusky shade representing a stripe. I have heard of three
white asses, not albinoes, with no trace of shoulder or spinal
stripes;[47] and I have seen nine other asses with no
shoulder-stripe, and some of them had no spinal stripe. Three of
the nine were light-greys, one a dark-grey, another grey passing
into reddish-roan, and the others were brown, two being tinted on
parts of their bodies with a reddish or bay shade. If therefore
grey and reddish-brown asses had been steadily selected and bred
from, the shoulder stripe would probably have been lost almost as
generally and completely as in the case of the horse.
The shoulder stripe on the ass is sometimes double, and Mr. Blyth
has seen even three or four parallel stripes.[48] I have observed
in ten cases shoulder-stripes abruptly truncated at the lower end,
with the anterior angle produced into a tapering point, precisely
as in the above dun Devonshire pony. I have seen three cases of the
terminal portion abruptly and angularly bent; and have seen and
heard of four cases of a distinct though slight forking of the
stripe. In Syria, Dr. Hooker and his party observed for me no less
than five similar instances of the shoulder-stripe plainly
bifurcating over the fore leg. In the common mule it likewise
sometimes bifurcates. When I first noticed the forking and angular
bending of the shoulder-stripe, I had seen enough of the stripes in
the various equine species to feel convinced that even a character
so unimportant as this had a distinct meaning, and was thus led to
attend to the subject. I now find that in the _E. burchellii_ and
_quagga,_ the stripe which corresponds with the shoulder-stripe of
the ass, as well as some of the stripes on the neck, bifurcate, and
that some of those near the shoulder have their extremities bent
angularly backwards. The bifurcation and angular bending of the
stripes on the shoulders apparently are connected with the nearly
upright stripes on the sides of the body and neck changing their
direction and becoming transverse on the legs. Finally, we see that
the presence of shoulder, leg, and spinal stripes in the horse,—
their occasional absence in the ass,—the occurrence of double and
triple shoulder-stripes in both animals, and the similar manner in
which these stripes terminate downwards,—are all cases of analogous
variation in the horse and ass. These cases are probably not due to
similar conditions acting on similar constitutions, but to a
partial reversion in colour to the common progenitor of the genus.
We shall hereafter return to this subject, and discuss it more
fully.
REFERENCES
[1] Rütimeyer ‘Fauna der Pfahlbauten,’ 1861, s. 122.
[2] _See_ ‘Youatt on the Horse’: J. Lawrence on the Horse, 1829; W. C.
L. Martin, ‘History of the Horse,’ 1845: Col. H. Smith, in ‘Nat.
Library, Horses,’ 1841, vol. xii.: Prof. Veith, ‘Die naturgesch.
Haussäugethiere,’ 1856.
[3] Crawfurd, ‘Descript. Dict. of Indian Islands,’ 1856, p. 153.
“There are many different breeds, every island having at least one
peculiar to it.” Thus in Sumatra there are at least two breeds; in
Achin and Batubara one; in Java several breeds; one in Bali, Lomboc,
Sumbawa (one of the best breeds), Tambora, Bima, Gunung-api, Celebes,
Sumba, and Philippines. Other breeds are specified by Zollinger in the
‘Journal of the Indian Archipelago,’ vol. v, p. 343, etc.
[4] ‘The Horse,’ etc. by John Lawrence, 1829, p. 14.
[5] ‘The Veterinary,’ London, vol. v, p. 543.
[6] ‘Mémoire sur les chevaux à trente-quatre côtes,’ 1871.
[7] Proc. Veterinary Assoc., in ‘The Veterinary,’ vol. xiii. p. 42.
[8] ‘Bulletin de la Soc. Géolog.,’ tom. xxii., 1866, p. 22.
[9] Mr. Percival of the Enniskillen Dragoons, in ‘The Veterinary,’
vol. i. p. 224: _see_ Azara, ‘Des Quadrupèdes du Paraguay,’ tom. ii.
p. 313. The French translator of Azara refers to other cases mentioned
by Huzard as having occurred in Spain.
[10] Godron, ‘De l’Espèce’ tom. i. p. 378.
[11] ‘Ueber die Eigenschaften,’ etc., 1828, s. 10.
[12] ‘Domesticated Animals of the British Islands,’ pp. 527, 532. In
all the veterinary treatises and papers which I have read, the writers
insist in the strongest terms on the inheritance by the horse of all
good and bad tendencies and qualities. Perhaps the principle of
inheritance is not really stronger in the horse than in any other
animal; but, from its value, the tendency has been more carefully
observed.
[13] Andrew Knight crossed breeds so different in size as a dray-horse
and Norwegian pony: _see_ A. Walker on ‘Intermarriage,’ 1838, p. 205.
[14] ‘Nat. Library, Horses,’ vol. xii. p. 208.
[15] Gervais, ‘Hist. Nat. Mamm.,’ tom. ii. p. 143. Owen, ‘British
Fossil Mammals,’ p. 383.
[16] ‘Kenntniss der fossilen Pferde,’ 1863, s. 131.
[17] ‘Comptes rendus,’ 1866, p. 485, and ‘Journal de l’Anat. et de la
Phys.,’ Mai 1868.
[18] Mr. W. C. L. Martin, (‘The Horse,’ 1845, p. 34), in arguing
against the belief that the wild Eastern horses are merely feral, has
remarked on the improbability of man in ancient times having
extirpated a species in a region where it can now exist in numbers.
[19] ‘Transact. Maryland Academy,’ vol. i. part i. p. 28.
[20] Mr. Mackinnon ‘The Falkland Islands,’ p. 25. The average height
of the Falkland horses is said to be 14 hands 2 inches. _See_ also my
‘Journal of Researches.’
[21] Pallas, ‘Act. Acad. St. Petersburgh,’ 1777, part ii. p. 265. With
respect to the tarpans scraping away the snow _see_ Col. Hamilton
Smith in ‘Nat. Lib.,’ vol. xii. p. 165.
[22] Franklin’s ‘Narrative,’ vol. i. p. 87; note by Sir J. Richardson.
[23] Mr. J. H. Moor, ‘Notices of the Indian Archipelago;’ Singapore,
1837, p. 189. A pony from Java was sent (‘Athenæum,’ 1842, p. 718) to
the Queen only 28 inches in height. For the Loo Choo Islands, _see_
Beechey’s ‘Voyage,’ 4th. edit., vol. i. p. 499.
[24] J. Crawford, ‘History of the Horse;’ ‘Journal of Royal United
Service Institution,’ vol. iv.
[25] ‘Essays on Natural History,’ 2nd series, p. 161.
[26] ‘Quadrupédes du Paraguay,’ tom. ii. p. 333. Dr. Canfield informs
me that a breed with curly hair was formed by selection at Los Angeles
in North America.
[27] See the evidence on this head in ‘Land and Water,’ May 2nd, 1868.
[28] Prof. Low, ‘Domesticated Animals,’ p. 546. With respect to the
writer in India _see_ ‘India Sporting Review,’ vol. ii. p. 181. As
Lawrence has remarked (‘The Horse,’ p. 9), “perhaps no instance has
ever occurred of a three-part bred horse (_i.e._ a horse, one of whose
grandparents was of impure blood) saving his distance in running two
miles with thoroughbred racers.” Some few instances are on record of
seven-eights racers having been successful.
[29] Prof. Gervais (in his ‘Hist. Nat. Mamm.,’ tom. ii. p. 144) has
collected many facts on this head. For instance Solomon (Kings, B. i.
ch. x. v. 28) bought horses in Egypt at a high price.
[30] ‘The Field,’ July 13th, 1861, p. 42.
[31] E. Vernon Harcourt, ‘Sporting in Algeria,’ p. 26.
[32] I state this from my own observations made during several years
on the colours of horses. I have seen cream-coloured, light-dun and
mouse-dun horses dappled, which I mention because it has been stated
(Martin, ‘History of the Horse,’ p. 134) that duns are never dappled.
Martin (p. 205) refers to dappled asses. In the ‘Farrier’ (London,
1828, pp. 453, 455) there are some good remarks on the dappling of
horses; and likewise in Col. Hamilton Smith on ‘The Horse.’
[33] Some details are given in ‘The Farrier,’ 1828, pp. 452, 455. One
of the smallest ponies I ever saw, of the colour of a mouse, had a
conspicuous spinal stripe. A small Indian chestnut pony had the same
stripe, as had a remarkably heavy chestnut cart-horse. Race-horses
often have the spinal stripe.
[34] I have received information, through the kindness of the
Consul-General, Mr. J. R. Crowe, from Prof. Boeck, Rasck, and Esmarck,
on the colours of the Norwegian ponies. _See also_ ‘The Field,’ 1861,
p. 431.
[35] Col. Hamilton Smith, ‘Nat. Lib.,’ vol. xii. p. 275.
[36] Mr. G. Clark, in ‘Annal and Mag. of Nat. History,’ 2nd series,
vol. ii. 1848, p. 363. Mr. Wallace informs me that he saw in Java a
dun and clay-coloured horse with spinal and leg stripes.
[37] _See also_ on this point, ‘The Field,’ July 27th, 1861, p. 91.
[38] ‘The Field,’ 1861, pp. 431, 493, 545.
[39] ‘Ueber die Eigenschaften,’ etc., 1828, s. 13, 14.
[40] Von Nathusius, ‘Vorträge über Viehzucht,’ 1872, 135.
[41] ‘Nat. Library,’ vol. xii. (1841), pp. 109, 156 to 163, 280, 281.
Cream-colour, passing into Isabella (_i.e._ the colour of the dirty
linen of Queen Isabella), seems to have been common in ancient times.
_See also_ Pallas’s account of the wild horses of the East, who speaks
of dun and brown as the prevalent colours. In the Icelandic sagas,
which were committed to writing in the twelfth century, dun-coloured
horses with a black spinal stripe are mentioned; _see_ Dasent’s
translation, vol. i. p. 169.
[42] Azara, ‘Quadrupèdes du Paraguay,’ tom. ii. p. 307. In North
America, Catlin (vol. ii. p. 57) describes the wild horses, believed
to have descended from the Spanish horses of Mexico, as of all
colours, black, grey, roan, and roan pied with sorrel. F. Michaux
(‘Travels in North America,’ Eng. translat., p. 235) describes two
wild horses from Mexico as roan. In the Falkland Islands, where the
horse has been feral only between 60 and 70 years, I was told that
roans and iron-greys were the prevalent colours. These several facts
show that horses do not soon revert to any uniform colour.
[43] Dr. Sclater, in ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,’ 1862, p. 164. Dr. Hartmann
says (‘Annalen der Landw.’ B. xliv. p. 222) that this animal in its
wild state is not always striped across the legs.
[44] W. C. Martin, ‘History of the Horse,’ 1845, p. 207.
[45] Col. Sykes’ Cat. of Mammalia, ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.’ July 12th,
1831. Williamson ‘Oriental Field Sports,’ vol. ii., quoted by Martin,
p. 206.
[46] Blyth, in ‘Charlesworth’s Mag. of Nat. Hist.,’ vol. iv., 1840, p.
83. I have also been assured by a breeder that this is the case.
[47] (One case is given by Martin, ‘The Horse,’ p. 205.
[48] ‘Journal As. Soc. of Bengal,’ vol. xxviii. 1860, p. 231. Martin
on the Horse, p. 205.