Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/96

64 brow arches (hardly visible in the figure) are nearly as pointed as the frontal arches in a Norwegian pony in my possession, and as in the Amsterdam Quagga. This is very remarkable, as in all the other hybrids the brow stripes form rounded arches. The cervical, and in fact all the other stripes as far as they go, agree with the corresponding stripes of Romulus. In the region of the shoulder the markings are very faint, and over the hind quarters only a few indistinct spots and portions of bands can be detected. The lower parts of the legs are only faintly striped, and even the bars across the forearm and the hock are more obscure than usual. But although none of the stripes are very pronounced, there are, strange to say, faint lines between several of the cervical and vertical body-stripes. These lines suggest "shadow" stripes, and seem to correspond to some of the numerous indistinct vertical stripes seen in Zebra-Ass hybrids. In having faint intermediate vertical stripes, this, on the whole, Horse-like hybrid may be said to be, in at least one respect, more primitive (to have reverted further) than either of the other hybrids already described. If this hybrid continues to thrive, she ought to grow into a powerful, active, shapely cob, about fourteen hands in height, hardier and with more staying power than an ordinary mule.

The most attractive of last summer's crop of hybrids has for its dam a good-looking 11-hands Shetland pony ("Nora"). This pony, which will be six years old in the spring, had a foal in 1895 to a small black prize Shetland pony ("Wallace"). Nora is in many ways a small edition of Mulatto, and her foal Norna may be said to be a small edition of Romulus. When a few days old Norna, in her colouring, movements, and make, was more fascinating than Romulus at a similar age; and now that she has increased from thirty inches (her height when foaled on June 8th) to nearly forty-one inches she looks (notwithstanding her single hoofs) as if she belonged to some bygone age. Norna has been from the first more intelligent than any of her contemporaries, and always very much on the alert without being at all nervous or frightened. She followed her dam through a crowd of some thousands of people on Jubilee Day without any hesitation, or evincing any signs of fear, and she now leads quietly and allows herself to be