ever, who has been followed by Mr. Bell, separates
the Asses, (including all the species but one,)
under the generic name of Asinus, leaving the
Horse, the valued associate and servant of man,
alone to fill the Genus Hquus. Colonel Hamilton
Smith further separates the striped South African
species from the other Asses, by the name of Hippotigris; but this seems a needless division.
The Horse, then, is generically distinguished by the mane and tail being full and flowing, the long hairs on the latter covering it from the insertion to the extremity; there is no dark line running © along the centre of the back, nor any bands on the body or limbs, the tendency of the colours being rather to form round spots: and the hinder as well as the fore legs are marked on the inner surface with rough, callous warts.
From very early times, the Horse (Aquus caballus, Linn.) has been in the service of man. The Sacred Scriptures, as well as the undying monuments of Egyptian antiquity, shew that its value as an animal of draught, and as an auxiliary of war, was well appreciated by the powerful and politic Pharaohs. Whether it exists anywhere in a truly wild condition, is very doubtful: herds of horses in a state of freedom scour the steppes of Tartary from Russia to China, and others snuff up the wind on the prairies of Texas, and on the Pampas of La Plata; but these latter, we know, are the emancipated descendants of the domestic horses introduced by the European colonizers of America; and we strongly suspect that the more savage breeds of Central Asia have a similar lineage; though a much more protracted continuance of freedom may have impressed more strongly the
