Abstract
IN almost all books on subjects connected with animals there is a growing tendency at the present day to introduce something concerning the natural history of the species under consideration. Too often in this country such remarks betray an insufficient knowledge of zoological science on the part of the writer, but this failing is seldom noticeable in American works. In the present volume, truth to say, there is some matter for criticism in Mr. Collier's remarks on the origin of the horse on p. 169, more especially in regard to the sense given to that much abused word “prehistoric.” On the other hand, the author furnishes some very interesting information with regard to the early history of the European horse in America. In the first place he refuses to credit the theory that the horses seen by Cabot in La Plata in 1530 were indigenous. Secondly, he shows that the horses which have run wild in Mexico and South America are the descendants of Spanish barbs, and therefore of the same blood as the English thoroughbred. This is very important in view of a fact recently communicated to the present writer by Mr. Yearsley, the well known surgeon, namely, that an Argentine horse living some years ago had a functional “larmier,” or tear-gland, on each side of the face.
Riding and Driving.
(American Sportsman's Library.) By E. L. Anderson and P. Collier. Pp. xiii + 441; illustrated. (New York: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 8s. 6d. net.
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L., R. Riding and Driving . Nature 72, 197 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072197a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072197a0