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 color of the native horse or pony is dun, varying from almost cream-color to dark-mouse dun; and an animal is not considered purely bred unless it has the spinal and leg-stripes. 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 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 colored drawing was sent me, was a mousedun, with the shoulder-stripes slightly forked.

In the northwestern 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 colors, 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-colored, 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-colored, and have the three kinds of stripes, “in the same degree as in England." 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 shoulderstripe.

We thus see that in all parts of the world breeds of the horse as different as possible, when of a dun-color (including under this term a wide range of tint from cream to dusty black), and rarely when almost white tinged with yellow, gray, bay, and chestnut, have the several above-specified stripes. Horses. which are of a yellow color with white mane and tail, and which are sometimes called duns, I have never seen with stripes.

I have endeavored, but with poor success, to discover whether duns, which are so much oftener striped than other colored 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-color and the stripes are strongly inherited. 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 gives two instances of mouse-duns (Mausrapp) being produced from two parents of different colors 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. 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.

VARIATIONS IN ANIMALS AND PLANTS.

With extremely few exceptions, all animals and plants which have been long domesticated have varied greatly. It matters not under what climate, or for what purpose they are kept, whether as food for man or beast, for draught or hunting, for clothing or mere pleasure, under all these circumstances races have been produced which differ more from one another than do the forms which in a state of nature are ranked as different species. Why certain animals and plants have varied more under domestication than others we do not know, any more than why some are rendered more sterile than others under changed conditions of life. But we have to judge of the amount of variation which our domestic productions have undergone, chiefly by the number and amount of difference between the races which have been formed, and we can often clearly see why many and distinct races have not been formed, namely, because slight successive variations have not been steadily accumulated; and such variations will never be