lex case, not indeed as
affecting any important character, but from occurring in several species
of the same genus, partly under domestication and partly under nature.
It is a case almost certainly of reversion. The ass sometimes has very
distinct transverse bars on its legs, like those on the legs of a zebra.
It has been asserted that these are plainest in the foal, and from
inquiries which I have made, I believe this to be true. The stripe on
the shoulder is sometimes double, and is very variable in length and
outline. A white ass, but NOT an albino, has been described without
either spinal or shoulder stripe; and these stripes are sometimes very
obscure, or actually quite lost, in dark-coloured asses. The koulan
of Pallas is said to have been seen with a double shoulder-stripe.
Mr. Blyth has seen a specimen of the hemionus with a distinct
shoulder-stripe, though it properly has none; and I have been informed
by Colonel Poole that foals of this species are generally striped on the
legs and faintly on the shoulder. The quagga, though so plainly barred
like a zebra over the body, is without bars on the legs; but Dr. Gray
has figured one specimen with very distinct zebra-like bars on the
hocks.

With respect to the horse, I have collected cases in England of the
spinal stripe in horses of the most distinct breeds, and of ALL colours;
transverse bars on the legs are not rare in duns, mouse-duns, and in one
instance in a chestnut; a faint shoulder-stripe may sometimes be seen
in duns, and I have seen a trace in a bay horse. My son made a careful
examination and sketch for me of a dun Belgian cart-horse with a double
stripe on each shoulder and with leg-stripes. I have myself seen a dun
Devonshire pony, and a small dun Welsh pony has been carefully described
to me, both with THREE parallel stripes on each shoulder.

In the northwest part of India the Kattywar breed of horses is so
generally striped, that, as I hear from Colonel Poole, who examined
this breed for the Indian Government, a horse without stripes is not
considered as purely bred. The spine is always striped; the legs are
generally barred; and the shoulder-stripe, which is sometimes double
and sometimes treble, is common; the side of the face, moreover, is
sometimes striped. The stripes are often plainest in the foal; and
sometimes quite disappear in old horses. Colonel Poole has seen both
gray and bay Kattywar horses striped when first foaled. I have also
reas