DOMESTIC CATS.
Cats have been domesticated in the East from an ancient period; Mr. Blyth informs me that they are mentioned in a Sanskrit writing 2000 years old, and in Egypt their antiquity is known to be even greater, as shown by monumental drawings and their mummied bodies. These mummies, according to De Blainville,[[88]] who has particularly studied the subject, belong to no less than three species, namely, F. caligulata, bubastes, and chaus. The two former species are said to be still found, both wild and domesticated, in parts of Egypt. F. caligulata presents a difference in the first inferior milk molar tooth, as compared with the domestic cats of Europe, which makes De Blainville conclude that it is not one of the parent-forms of our cats. Several naturalists, as Pallas, Temminck, Blyth, believe that domestic cats are the descendants of several species commingled: it is certain that cats cross readily with various wild species, and it would appear that the character of the domestic breeds has, at least in some cases, been thus affected. Sir W. Jardine has no doubt that, “in the north of Scotland, there has been occasional crossing with our native species (F. sylvestris), and that the result of these crosses has been kept in our houses. I have seen,” he adds, “many cats very closely resembling the wild cat, and one or two that could scarcely be distinguished from it.” Mr. Blyth[[89]] remarks on this passage, “but such cats are never seen in the southern parts of England; still, as compared with any Indian tame cat, the affinity of the ordinary British cat to F. sylvestris is manifest; and due I suspect to frequent intermixture at a time when the tame cat was first introduced into Britain and continued rare, while the wild species was far more abundant than at present.” In Hungary, Jeitteles[[90]] was assured on trustworthy authority that a wild male cat crossed with a female domestic cat, and that the hybrids long lived in a domesticated state. In Algiers the domestic cat has crossed with the wild cat (F. lybica) of that country.[[91]] In South Africa as Mr. E. Layard informs me, the domestic cat intermingles freely with the wild F. caffra; he has seen a pair of hybrids which were quite tame and particularly attached to the lady who brought them up; and Mr. Fry has found that these hybrids are fertile. In India the domestic cat, according to Mr. Blyth, has crossed with four Indian species. With respect to one of these species, F. chaus, an excellent observer, Sir W. Elliot, informs me that he once killed, near Madras, a wild brood, which were evidently hybrids from the domestic cat; these young animals had a thick lynx-like tail and the broad brown bar on the inside of the forearm characteristic of F. chaus. Sir W. Elliot adds that he has often observed this same mark on the forearms of domestic cats in India. Mr. Blyth states that domestic cats coloured nearly like F. chaus, but not resembling that species in shape, abound in Bengal; he adds, “such a colouration is utterly unknown in European cats, and the proper tabby markings (pale streaks on a black ground, peculiarly and symmetrically disposed), so common in English cats, are never seen in those of India.” Dr. D. Short has assured Mr. Blyth[[92]] that, at Hansi, hybrids between the common cat and F. ornata (or torquata) occur, “and that many of the domestic cats of that part of India were undistinguishable from the wild F. ornata.” Azara states, but only on the authority of the inhabitants, that in Paraguay the cat has crossed with two native species. From these several cases we see that in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, the common cat, which lives a freer life than most other domesticated animals, has crossed with various wild species; and that in some instances the crossing has been sufficiently frequent to affect the character of the breed.
Whether domestic cats have descended from several distinct species, or have only been modified by occasional crosses, their fertility, as far as is known, is unimpaired. The large Angora or Persian cat is the most distinct in structure and habits of all the domestic breeds; and is believed by Pallas, but on no distinct evidence, to be descended from the F. manul of middle Asia; and I am assured by Mr. Blyth that the Angora cat breeds freely with Indian cats, which, as we have already seen, have apparently been much crossed with F. chaus. In England half-bred Angora cats are perfectly fertile with one another.
Within the same country we do not meet with distinct races of the cat, as we do of dogs and of most other domestic animals; though the cats of the same country present a considerable amount of fluctuating variability. The explanation obviously is that, from their nocturnal and rambling habits, indiscriminate crossing cannot without much trouble be prevented. Selection cannot be brought into play to produce distinct breeds, or to keep those distinct which have been imported from foreign lands. On the other hand, in islands and in countries completely separated from each other, we meet with breeds more or less distinct; and these cases are worth giving, showing that the scarcity of distinct races in the same country is not caused by a deficiency of variability in the animal. The tailless cats of the Isle of Man are said to differ from common cats not only in the want of a tail, but in the greater length of their hind legs, in the size of their heads, and in habits. The Creole cat of Antigua, as I am informed by Mr. Nicholson, is smaller, and has a more elongated head, than the British cat. In Ceylon, as Mr. Thwaites writes to me, every one at first notices the different appearance of the native cat from the English animal; it is of small size, with closely lying hairs; its head is small, with a receding forehead; but the ears are large and sharp; altogether it has what is there called a “low-caste” appearance. Rengger[[93]] says that the domestic cat, which has been bred for 300 years in Paraguay, presents a striking difference from the European cat; it is smaller by a fourth, has a more lanky body, its hair is short, shining, scanty and lies close, especially on the tail: he adds that the change has been less at Ascension, the capital of Paraguay, owing to the continual crossing with newly imported cats; and this fact well illustrates the importance of separation. The conditions of life in Paraguay appear not to be highly favourable to the cat, for, though they have run half-wild, they do not become thoroughly feral, like so many other European animals. In another part of South America, according to Roulin,[[94]] the introduced cat has lost the habit of uttering its hideous nocturnal howl. The Rev. W.D. Fox purchased a cat in Portsmouth, which he was told came from the coast of Guinea; its skin was black and wrinkled, fur bluish-grey and short, its ears rather bare, legs long, and whole aspect peculiar. This “negro” cat was fertile with common cats. On the opposite coast of Africa, at Mombas, Captain Owen, R.N.,[[95]] states that all the cats are covered with short stiff hair instead of fur: he gives a curious account of a cat from Algoa Bay, which had been kept for some time on board and could be identified with certainty; this animal was left for only eight weeks at Mombas, but during that short period it “underwent a complete metamorphosis, having parted with its sandy-coloured fur.” A cat from the Cape of Good Hope has been described by Desmarest as remarkable from a red stripe extending along the whole length of its back. Throughout an immense area, namely, the Malayan archipelago, Siam, Pegu, and Burmah, all the cats have truncated tails about half the proper length,[[96]] often with a sort of knot at the end. In the Caroline archipelago the cats have very long legs, and are of a reddish-yellow colour.[[97]] In China a breed has drooping ears. At Tobolsk, according to Gmelin, there is a red-coloured breed. In Asia, also, we find the well-known Angora or Persian breed.
The domestic cat has run wild in several countries, and everywhere assumes, as far as can be judged by the short recorded descriptions, a uniform character. Near Maldonado, in La Plata, I shot one which seemed perfectly wild; it was carefully examined by Mr. Waterhouse,[[98]] who found nothing remarkable in it, excepting its great size. In New Zealand according to Dieffenbach, the feral cats assume a streaky grey colour like that of wild cats; and this is the case with the half-wild cats of the Scotch Highlands.
We have seen that distant countries possess distinct domestic races of the cat. The differences may be in part due to descent from several aboriginal species, or at least to crosses with them. In some cases, as in Paraguay, Mombas, and Antigua, the differences seem due to the direct action of different conditions of life. In other cases some slight effect may possibly be attributed to natural selection, as cats in many cases have largely to support themselves and to escape diverse dangers. But man, owing to the difficulty of pairing cats, has done nothing by methodical selection; and probably very little by unintentional selection; though in each litter he generally saves the prettiest, and values most a good breed of mouse- or rat-catchers. Those cats which have a strong tendency to prowl after game, generally get destroyed by traps. As cats are so much petted, a breed bearing the same relation to other cats, that lapdogs bear to larger dogs, would have been much valued; and if selection could have been applied, we should certainly have had many breeds in each long-civilised country, for there is plenty of variability to work upon.
We see in this country considerable diversity in size, some in the proportions of the body, and extreme variability in colouring. I have only lately attended to this subject, but have already heard of some singular cases of variation; one of a cat born in the West Indies toothless, and remaining so all its life. Mr. Tegetmeier has shown me the skull of a female cat with its canines so much developed that they protruded uncovered beyond the lips; the tooth with the fang being .95, and the part projecting from the gum .6 of an inch in length. I have heard of several families of six-toed cats, in one of which the peculiarity had been transmitted for at least three generations. The tail varies greatly in length; I have seen a cat which always carried its tail flat on its back when pleased. The ears vary in shape, and certain strains, in England, inherit a pencil-like tuft of hairs, above a quarter of an inch in length, on the tips of their ears; and this same peculiarity, according to Mr. Blyth, characterises some cats in India. The great variability in the length of the tail and the lynx-like tufts of hairs on the ears are apparently analogous to differences in certain wild species of the genus. A much more important difference, according to Daubenton,[[99]] is that the intestines of domestic cats are wider, and a third longer, than in wild cats of the same size; and this apparently has been by their less strictly carnivorous diet.
REFERENCES
[1] Owen ‘British Fossil Mammals,’ pp. 123 to 133. Pictet’s ‘Traité de Pal.,’ 1853, tom. i. p. 202. De Blainville in his ‘Ostéographie, Canidæ,’ p. 142, has largely discussed the whole subject, and concludes that the extinct parent of all domesticated dogs came nearest to the wolf in organisation, and to the jackal in habits. See also Boyd Dawkins, ‘Cave Hunting,’ 1874, p. 131, etc., and his other publications. Jeitteles has discussed in great detail the character of the breeds of pre-historic dogs: ‘Die vorgeschichtlichen Alterthümer der Stadt Olmütz,’ II. Theil, 1872, p. 44 to end.
[2] Pallas, I believe, originated this doctrine in ‘Act. Acad. St. Petersburgh,’ 1780, Part ii. Ehrenberg has advocated it, as may be seen in De Blainville’s ‘Ostéographie,’ p. 79. It has been carried to an extreme extent by Col. Hamilton Smith in the ‘Naturalist Library,’ vols ix and x. Mr. W. C. Martin adopts it in his excellent ‘History of the Dog,’ 1845; as does Dr. Morton, as well as Nott and Gliddon, in the United States. Prof. Low, in his ‘Domesticated Animals,’ 1845, p. 666, comes to this same conclusion. No one has argued on this side with more clearness and force than the late James Wilson, of Edinburgh, in various papers read before the Highland Agricultural and Wernerian Societies. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ 1860, tom. iii. p. 107), though he believes that most dogs have descended from the jackal, yet inclines to the belief that some are descended from the wolf. Prof. Gervais (‘Hist. Nat. Mamm.’ 1855, tom. ii. p. 69, referring to the view that all the domestic races are the modified descendants of a single species, after a long discussion, says, “Cette opinion est, suivant nous du moins, la moins probable.”
[3] Berjeau, ‘The Varieties of the Dog; in old Sculptures and Pictures,’ 1863. ‘Der Hund,’ von Dr. F. L. Walther, Giessen, 1817, s. 48: this author seems carefully to have studied all classical works on the subject. See also Volz, ‘Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte,’ Leipzig, 1852, s. 115, ‘Youatt on the Dog,’ 1845, p. 6. A very full history is given by De Blainville in his ‘Ostéographie, Canidæ.’
[4] I have seen drawings of this dog from the tomb of the son of Esar Haddon, and clay models in the British Museum. Nott and Gliddon, in their ‘Types of Mankind,’ 1854, p. 393, give a copy of these drawings. This dog has been called a Thibetan mastiff, but Mr. H. A. Oldfield, who is familiar with the so-called Thibet mastiff, and has examined the drawings in the British Museum, informs me that he considers them different.
[5] ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,’ July 12th, 1831.
[6] ‘Sporting in Algeria,’ p. 51.
[7] Berjeau gives facsimiles of the Egyptian drawings. Mr. C. L. Martin in his ‘History of the Dog,’ 1845, copies several figures from the Egyptian monuments, and speaks with much confidence with respect to their identity with still living dogs. Messrs. Nott and Gliddon (‘Types of Mankind,’ 1854, p. 388) give still more numerous figures. Mr. Gliddon asserts that a curl-tailed greyhound, like that represented on the most ancient monuments, is common in Borneo; but the Rajah, Sir J. Brooke, informs me that no such dog exists there.
[8] These, and the following facts on the Danish remains, are taken from M. Morlot’s most interesting memoir in ‘Soc. Vaudoise des Sc. Nat.’ tom. vi., 1860, pp. 281, 299, 320.
[9] ‘Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten,’ 1861, s. 117, 162.
[10] De Blainville ‘Ostéographie, Canidæ.’
[11] Sir R. Schomburgk has given me information on this head. See also ‘Journal of R. Geographical Soc.’ vol. xiii. 1843, p. 65.
[12] ‘Domestication of Animals:’ Ethnological Soc., Dec. 22nd, 1863.
[13] ‘Journal of Researches,’ etc., 1845, p. 393. With respect to Canis antarcticus, see p. 193. For the case of the antelope, see ‘Journal Royal Geograph. Soc.,’ vol. xxiii. p. 94.
[14] The authorities for the foregoing statements are as follow:—Richardson in ‘Fauna Boreali-Americana,’ 1829, pp. 64, 75; Dr. Kane ‘Arctic Explorations,’ 1856, vol. i. pp. 398, 455; Dr. Hayes ‘Arctic Boat Journey,’ 1860, p. 167. Franklin’s ‘Narrative,’ vol. i. p. 269, gives the case of three whelps of a black wolf being carried away by the Indians. Parry, Richardson, and others, give accounts of wolves and dogs naturally crossing in the eastern parts of North America. Seeman in his ‘Voyage of H.M.S. Herald,’ 1853, vol. ii. p. 26, says the wolf is often caught by the Esquimaux for the purpose of crossing with their dogs, and thus adding to their size and strength. M. Lamare-Picquot in ‘Bull. de la Soc. d’Acclimat,’ tom. vii., 1860, p. 148, gives a good account of the half-bred Esquimaux dogs.
[15] ‘Fauna Boreali-Americana,’ 1829, pp. 73, 78, 80. Nott and Gliddon, ‘Types of Mankind,’ p. 383. The naturalist and traveller Bartram is quoted by Hamilton Smith, in ‘Naturalist Lib.,’ vol. x. p. 156. A Mexican domestic dog seems also to resemble a wild dog of the same country; but this may be the prairie-wolf. Another capable judge, Mr. J. K. Lord (‘The Naturalist in Vancouver Island,’ 1866, vol. ii. p. 218), says that the Indian dog of the Spokans, near the Rocky Mountains, “is beyond all question nothing more than a tamed Cayote or prairie-wolf,” or Canis latrans.)
[16] I quote this from Mr. R. Hill’s excellent account of the Alco or domestic dog of Mexico, in Gosse’s ‘Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica,’ 1851, p. 329.
[17] ‘Naturgeschichte der Säugethiere von Paraguay,’ 1830, s. 151.
[18] Quoted in Humboldt’s ‘Aspects of Nature’ (Eng. trans.), vol. i. p. 108.
[19] p.t’s ‘Travels in Hungary and Transylvania,’ vol. i. p. 501. Jeitteles ‘Fauna Hungariæ Superioris,’ 1862, s. 13. See Pliny ‘Hist. of the World’ (Eng. trans.), 8th book, ch. xl., about the Gauls crossing their dogs. See also Aristotle ‘Hist. Animal.’lib. viii. c. 28. For good evidence about wolves and dogs naturally crossing near the Pyrenees, see M. Mauduyt ‘Du Loup et de ses Races,’ Poitiers, 1851; also Pallas in ‘Acta Acad. St. Petersburgh,’ 1780, part ii. p. 94.
[20] I give this on excellent authority, namely Mr. Blyth (under the signature of Zoophilus), in the ‘Indian Sporting Review,’ Oct. 1856, p. 134. Mr. Blyth states that he was struck with the resemblance between a brush-tailed race of pariah-dogs, north-west of Cawnpore, and the Indian wolf. He gives corroborative evidence with respect to the dogs of the valley of the Nerbudda.
[21] For numerous and interesting details on the resemblance of dogs and jackals see Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ 1860, tom. iii. p. 101. See also ‘Hist. Nat. des Mammifères,’ par Prof. Gervais, 1855, tom. ii. p. 60.
[22] Also Güldenstädt ‘Nov. Comment. Acad. Petrop.,’ tom. xx., pro anno 1775, p. 449. Also Salvin in ‘Land and Water,’ Oct. 1869.
[23] Quoted by De Blainville in his ‘Ostéographie, Canidæ,’ pp. 79, 98.
[24] See Pallas in ‘Act. Acad. St. Petersburgh,’ 1780, part ii. p. 91. For Algeria, see Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 177. In both countries it is the male jackal which pairs with female domestic dogs.
[25] John Barbut’s ‘Description of the Coast of Guinea in 1746.’
[26] ‘Travels in South Africa,’ vol. ii. p. 272.
[27] Selwyn, Geology of Victoria; ‘Journal of Geolog. Soc.,’ vol. xiv., 1858, p. 536, and vol. xvi., 1860, p. 148; and Prof. M’Coy, in ‘Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ (3rd series) vol. ix., 1862, p. 147. The Dingo differs from the dogs of the central Polynesian islands. Dieffenbach remarks (‘Travels,’ vol. ii. p. 45) that the native New Zealand dog also differs from the Dingo.
[28] These latter remarks afford, I think, a sufficient answer to some criticisms by Mr. Wallace, on the multiple origin of dogs, given in Lyell’s ‘Principles of Geology,’ 1872, vol. ii. p. 295.
[29] ‘Proceedings Zoolog. Soc.,’ 1833, p. 112. See also, on the taming of the common wolf, L. Lloyd, ‘Scandinavian Adventures,’ 1854, vol. i. p. 460. With respect to the jackal, see Prof. Gervais ‘Hist. Nat. Mamm.’ tom. ii. p. 61. With respect to the aguara of Paraguay see Rengger’s work.
[30] Roulin, in ‘Mém. présent. par divers Savans,’ tom. vi. p. 341.
[31] Martin, ‘History of the Dog,’ p. 14.
[32] Quoted by L. Lloyd in ‘Field Sports of North of Europe,’ vol. i. p. 387.
[33] Quatrefages, ‘Soc. d’Acclimat.,’ May 11th, 1863, p. 7.
[34] ‘Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ vol. xv., 1845, p. 140.
[35] Azara, ‘Voyages dans l’Amér. Mérid.’ tom. i. p. 381; his account is fully confirmed by Rengger. Quatrefages gives an account of a bitch brought from Jerusalem to France which burrowed a hole and littered in it. See ‘Discours, Exposition des Races Canines,’ 1865, p. 3.
[36] With respect to wolves burrowing holes see Richardson, ‘Fauna Boreali-Americana,’ p. 64; and Bechstein ‘Naturgeschichte Deutschlands,’ B. i. s. 617.
[37] See Poeppig, ‘Reise in Chile,’ B. i. s. 290; Mr. G. Clarke, as above; and Rengger, s. 155.
[38] Dogs, ‘Nat. Library,’ vol. x. p. 121; an endemic South American dog seems also to have become feral in this island. See Gosse’s ‘Jamaica,’ p. 340.
[39] Low ‘Domesticated Animals,’ p. 650.
[40] ‘The Naturalist Library,’ Dogs, vol. x. pp. 4, 19.
[41] Quoted by Prof. Gervais, ‘Hist. Nat. Mamm.,’ tom. ii. p. 66.
[42] J. Hunter shows that the long period of seventy-three days given by Buffon is easily explained by the bitch having received the dog many times during a period of sixteen days (‘Phil. Transact.,’ 1787, p. 353). Hunter found that the gestation of a mongrel from wolf and dog (‘Phil. Transact.,’ 1789, p. 160) apparently was sixty-three days, for she received the dog more than once. The period of a mongrel dog and jackal was fifty-nine days. Fred. Cuvier found the period of gestation of the wolf to be (‘Dict. Class. d’Hist. Nat.’ tom. iv. p. 8) two months and a few days, which agrees with the dog. Isid G. St.-Hilaire, who has discussed the whole subject, and from whom I quote Bellingeri, states (‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 112) that in the Jardin des Plantes the period of the jackal has been found to be from sixty to sixty-three days, exactly as with the dog.
[43] See Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 112, on the odour of jackals. Col. Ham. Smith in ‘Nat. Lib.,’ vol. x. p. 289.
[44] Quoted by Quatrefages in ‘Bull. Soc. d’Acclimat.,’ May 11th, 1863.
[45] ‘Journal de la Physiologie,’ tom. ii. p. 385.
[46] See Mr. R. Hill’s excellent account of this breed in Gosse’s ‘Jamaica,’ p. 338; Rengger ‘Säugethiere von Paraguay,’ s. 153. With respect to Spitz dogs, see Bechstein’s ‘Naturgesch. Deutschlands,’ 1801, B. i. s. 638. With respect to Dr. Hodgkin’s statement made before Brit. Assoc. see ‘The Zoologist,’ vol. iv. for 1845-46 p. 1097.
[47] ‘Acta Acad. St. Petersburgh,’ 1780, part ii. pp. 84, 100.
[48] M. Broca has shown (‘Journal de Physiologie,’ tom. ii. p. 353) that Buffon’s experiments have been often misrepresented. Broca has collected (pp. 390-395) many facts on the fertility of crossed dogs, wolves, and jackals.
[49] ‘De la Longévité Humaine,’ par M. Flourens, 1855, p. 143. Mr. Blyth says (‘Indian Sporting Review,’ vol. 2 p. 137) that he has seen in India several hybrids from the pariah-dog and jackal; and between one of these hybrids and a terrier. The experiments of Hunter on the jackal are well-known. See also Isid. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 217, who speaks of the hybrid offspring of the jackal as perfectly fertile for three generations.
[50] On authority of F. Cuvier quoted in Bronn’s ‘Geschichte der Natur,’ B ii. s. 164.
[51] W. C. L. Martin ‘History of the Dog,’ 1845, p. 203. Mr. Philip P. King, after ample opportunities of observation, informs me that the Dingo and European dogs often cross in Australia.
[52] Rüppel ‘Neue Wirbelthiere von Abyssinien,’ 1835-40 ‘Mammif.,’ s. 39 pl. xiv. There is a specimen of this fine animal in the British Museum.
[53] Even Pallas admits this; see ‘Act. Acad. St. Petersburgh,’ 1780, p. 93.
[54] Quoted by I. Geoffroy, ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 453.
[55] F. Cuvier in ‘Annales du Muséum,’ tom. xviii. p. 337; Godron ‘De l’Espèce,’ tom. i. p. 342; and Col. H. Smith in ‘Nat. Library,’ vol. ix. p. 101. See also some observations on the degeneracy of the skull in certain breeds, by Prof. Bianconi, ‘La Theorie Darwinienne,’ 1874, p. 279.
[56] Dr. Burt Wilder, ‘American Assoc. Advancement of Science,’ 1873, pp. 236, 239.
[57] Isid. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire ‘Hist. des Anomalies,’ 1832, tom. i. p. 660, Gervais ‘Hist. Nat. des Mammifères,’ tom. ii., 1855, p. 66. De Blainville (‘Ostéographie, Canidæ,’ p. 137) has also seen an extra molar on both sides.
[58] ‘Ostéographie, Canidæ,’ p. 137.
[59] Würzburger ‘Medecin. Zeitschrift,’ 1860, B. i. s. 265.
[60] Mr. Yarrell in ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,’ Oct. 8th, 1833. Mr. Waterhouse showed me a skull of one of these dogs, which had only a single molar on each side and some imperfect incisors.
[61] Quoted in ‘The Veterinary,’ London, vol. viii. p. 415.
[62] This is quoted from Stonehenge, a great authority, ‘The Dog,’ 1867, p. 187.
[63] ‘Hist. Nat. Général,’ tom. iii. p. 448.
[64] W. Scrope ‘Art of Deer-Stalking,’ p. 354.
[65] Quoted by Col. Ham. Smith in ‘Nat. Lib.,’ vol. x. p. 79.
[66] De Blainville ‘Ostéographie, Canidæ,’ p. 134. F. Cuvier ‘Annales du Muséum,’ tom. xviii. p. 342. In regard to mastiffs, see Col. H. Smith ‘Nat. Lib.’ vol. x. p. 218. For the Thibet mastiff, see Mr. Hodgson in ‘Journal of As. Soc. of Bengal,’ vol. i., 1832, p. 342.
[67] ‘The Dog,’ 1845, p. 186. With respect to diseases Youatt asserts (p. 167) that the Italian greyhound is “strongly subject” to polypi in the matrix or vagina. The spaniel and pug (p. 182) are most liable to bronchocele. The liability to distemper (p. 232) is extremely different in different breeds. On the distemper, see also Col. Hutchinson on ‘Dog Breaking,’ 1850, p. 279.
[68] See Youatt on the Dog, p. 15; ‘The Veterinary,’ London, vol. xi. p. 235.
[69] ‘Journal of As. Soc. of Bengal,’ vol. iii. p. 19.
[70] ‘Travels,’ vol. ii. p. 15.
[71] Hodgson in ‘Journal of As. Soc. of Bengal,’ vol. i. p. 342.
[72] ‘Field Sports of the North of Europe,’ vol. ii. p. 165.
[73] ‘Hist. Nat. des Mammif.,’ 1855, tom. ii. pp. 66, 67.
[74] ‘History of Quadrupeds,’ 1793, vol. i. p. 238.
[75] ‘Oriental Field Sports,’ quoted by Youatt, ‘The Dog,’ p. 15.
[76] A. Murray gives this passage in his ‘Geographical Distribution of Mammals,’ 4to, 1866, p. 8.
[77] Quoted by Mr. Galton, ‘Domestication of Animals,’ p. 13.
[78] ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 450.
[79] Mr. Greenhow on the Canadian Dog in Loudon’s ‘Mag. of Nat. Hist.,’ vol. vi., 1833, p. 511.
[80] See Mr. C. O. Groom-Napier on the webbing of the hind feet of Otterhounds in ‘Land and Water,’ Oct. 13, 1866, p. 270.
[81] ‘Fauna Boreali-Americana,’ 1829, p. 62.
[82] ‘The Horse in all his Varieties,’ etc., 1829, pp. 230, 234.
[83] ‘The Dog,’ 1845, pp. 31, 35; with respect to King Charles’s spaniel, p. 45; for the setter, p. 90.
[84] In the ‘Encyclop. of Rural Sports,’ p. 557.
[85] Author of ‘Researches into the History of the British Dog.’
[86] See Col. Hamilton Smith on the antiquity of the Pointer, in ‘Nat. Lib.’ vol. x. p. 196.
[87] The Newfoundland dog is believed to have originated from a cross between the Esquimaux dog and a large French hound. See Dr. Hodgkin ‘British Assoc.,’ 1844; Bechstein ‘Naturgesch. Deutschland,’ B. i. s. 574; ‘Nat. Lib.,’ vol. x. p. 132; also Mr. Jukes’ ‘Excursion in and about Newfoundland.’
[88] De Blainville ‘Ostéographie, Felis,’ p. 65, on the character of F. caligulata; pp. 85, 89, 90, 175, on the other mummied species. He quotes Ehrenberg on F. maniculata being mummied.
[89] Asiatic Soc. of Calcutta; Curator’s Report, Aug. 1856. The passage from Sir W. Jardine is quoted from this Report. Mr. Blyth, who has especially attended to the wild and domestic cats of India, has given in this Report a very interesting discussion on their origin.
[90] ‘Fauna Hungariæ Sup.,’ 1862, s. 12.
[91] Isid. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 177.
[92] ‘Proc. Zoolog. Soc.,’ 1863, p. 184.
[93] ‘Säugethiere von Paraguay,’ 1830, s. 212.
[94] ‘Mem. présentés par divers Savans: Acad. Roy. des Sciences,’ tom. vi. p. 346. Gomara first noticed this fact in 1554.
[95] ‘Narrative of Voyages,’ vol. ii. p. 180.
[96] J. Crawfurd ‘Descript. Dict. of the Indian Islands,’ p. 255. The Madagascar cat is said to have a twisted tail; see Desmarest in ‘Encyclop. Nat. Mamm.,’ 1820, p. 233, for some of the other breeds.
[97] Admiral Lutké’s Voyage, vol. iii. p. 308.
[98] ‘Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, Mammalia,’ p. 20. Dieffenbach ‘Travels in New Zealand,’ vol. ii. p. 185. Ch. St. John ‘Wild Sports of the Highlands,’ 1846, p. 40.
[99] Quoted by Isid. Geoffroy ‘Hist. Nat. Gén.,’ tom. iii. p. 427.
CHAPTER II.
HORSES AND ASSES.
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.
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.