. The animans and man; an elementary textbook of zoology and human physiology. rans) and dun-gray wolf(Canis occidentalis) of North America. The house cats, on the contrary, as various and as widelydistributed as they are, seem to be all descended from asingle wild species. This is the dun wild cat (Felis- mani-culata) of northeast Africa. All of the present races ofhouse cats trace their lineage back to Egypt. That theEgyptians were much given to the possession and care ofcats the numerous cat mummies of their graves were a sacred animal for them under the special pro-tection of the
. The animans and man; an elementary textbook of zoology and human physiology. rans) and dun-gray wolf(Canis occidentalis) of North America. The house cats, on the contrary, as various and as widelydistributed as they are, seem to be all descended from asingle wild species. This is the dun wild cat (Felis- mani-culata) of northeast Africa. All of the present races ofhouse cats trace their lineage back to Egypt. That theEgyptians were much given to the possession and care ofcats the numerous cat mummies of their graves were a sacred animal for them under the special pro-tection of the Goddess Bast, a goddess introduced intoEgypt by Semitic influence. The horses of modern times can be traced back to two 264 THE ANIMALS AND MAN wild ancestors, namely Equus przewalskii of northern Asia,from which all the Oriental, Mongolian, Arabian, NorthAfrican and East European races have sprung; andEquus caballus fossilis, or the diluvial horse, of Europe, fromwhich the German, Norman, English and West Europeanhorses generally have arisen. In America fossil horses have. FIG. 138. Arion, a record-holding American trotting horse. (AfterPlumb.) been found back through a series of geologic ages as far asthe beginning of the Tertiary age forming a connected seriesfrom the small Eohippus of the Lower Eocene period, aboutthe size of a fox, and with four toes and splint of the first digiton the front feet and three toes and splint of the fifth di-git on each hind foot; through Protorohippus and Oro-hippus of the Middle Eocene, about 14 inches high, withfour toes on front feet and three toes on hind feet, and nosplints; through Mesohippus of the Oligocene, about the DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 265 size ot4 a coyote, and with three toes on all its feet; throughProtohippus and certain other kinds of the Middle Miocene,about as large as Shetland ponies and with three toes on allfeet but with the side toes not touching the ground; toEquus, which first appeared in the Pleistocene with onlyone
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