Furthermore, the light-colored and uniform coating, without the dorsal stripe and not separated, by a darker tint from the white of the lower parts; the plump shape of the hoofs, and the long hairs of the lower legs, are so many characteristics separating the Prejevalski horse from the hemiones and allying it with the horse.[1]
It is therefore reasonable to assume, with Poliakoff, that the wild horse of Dzungaria is the true primitive horse, and represents the original stock of all the domestic races. That naturalist has compared the skull of this horse with those of the remains of horses in the European Quaternary, and has been led to believe in as complete an identity as possible between the two types. We know, from the researches of Nehring on the Quaternary fauna
Fig. 2.—Syrian Hemippus (Equus hemippus).
of central Europe, that the existing fauna of the Asiatic steppes, which is characterized by the presence of the saïga, the jerboa, and the souslik, extended into Germany and the north of France. Two species of Equidœ-form a part of this fauna—the hemione (Equus hemionus) and the wild horse (Equus caballus ferus), which is probably identical with Equus Prejevalskii.
The wild horse of Dzungaria is, of all the species of the genus, the one of most northern habitat. This fact explains why the domestic horse supports so well the winters of northern Europe,
- ↑ According to Herodotus, there were in his time wild horses in Scythia, on the banks of the Hypanis, which were white, like Prejevalski's horse. The Asiatic tarpans are never of as clear a color.
