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TRANSMISSION OF GRAY IN HORSES Gray Color Coats Descend in a Single Line from the Alcock Arabian Through Two Centuries. In view of he success of the gray stock of The Tetrarch and his sire. Itoi Herede, it may be instructive to recall how nearly, just over a hundred years ago. the gray color was within an nee of eb-ing practically exi ingiiishcd. and on what a slender thread its future existence hung. We find that the gray mare Spinster, sent to Ireland in aboui 1810, had been bred from gray dams for six general ions, the color being originally inherited from the Aleoek Arabtua, beyond which. of course, it is impossible to trace it. At the stud, though she produced many foals, only her first bora was -i graj . and had he not been so. grays Weald have lioen practically extinct at the present time. This colt, afterward known as Master Robert 1811, on being mated with the celebrated Sir Walter Keleigh mare, dam Miss Tooley grand -dam of the immortal Harkawayl. sired ihe gray horse Drone, aad as he subsequent ly became a -ire of some mesaeat, was thus instrumental in keeping Ihe color aiive. From Drone, and more particularly through his well-known daughter. Whim, every thoroughbred gray is now descended, with the exception of a few. chiefly daughters of Friary, which inherit their color through a totally differ, nt channel, tracing lo a gray son of the Brownlow Turk, and every gray derives the color from either thi- horse or the Alcock Arabian. A table is appended showing bOW the gray color has been handed down wi.hoiit a break to The Tetrarch. from its original source: The Tetiarch. gray norse. foaled ltlll 1914— His sire. Itoi Herode .Cray 1800 His sire. Le Samaritaine Gray 1SS4— His sire. I.c Sancy Cray 1 s":i His dam. Com of Cems Cray 1803 Her sire. Strathconan Cray ls.-,i; His dam. Souvenir Cray ll.i Chanticleer Cray ls:vj His dam. Whim Cray l-.i Her sire. Drone Cray 1S17 His sire. Master Robert Cray 1803 — His dam. Spinster Cray 1797 — Her dim. Sir Peter mare Cray 17S" Her dam. Bab Cray 177v. Her dam. Spcranz.i Gray 174H Her dam, Virago Gray 17-".7 liv dam. Begulus male Cray 1730 Her dam. farter to Black and All Clack. Cray 17J Her sire. Crab Cray 1! - sire, the Alcock Arabian, which was al-o Known as Mr 1clhani- Grey Arab, and was afterward the property of the Duke of An. -aster. II is remarkable that tkoagk Ihe color is constant. it is derived indiscriminately either in the male or female line, thus con firming the rule that one or both parents mast be a gray in order lo predate a graj The fuel that this color cannot be inherited tinles-11111 or oilier of he actual parents are gray accounl-fOT their numbers being, of lute year-, -o reduced compared with a hundred year- ago. when, as the old Calendars show, they were plentiful on our race- tt arses in the early days of the st Lager, for instance, it i- netlcabte how many of the runners were gray. Al Carlisle, in 173L. Ihe six starter- for a particular race were all grays, .-md at Hambletoa . ae ,o;ir Ihe fir-! few* were gray-, a- were -ix others of the twenty -tarter- for the Mares date. A.s cxanipl - . t mare- bleeding true to color, one may mention Mr. Garfortka famous mare Vesta ilsp; i. which bred thirteen gray foals in succession to nine different sires; Banana 18081, which bred sixteen bays or blown when mated with eigkl horses el varying rotors, and Persepolia 1SU3i. iH of Wheat fifteen foal- were eke-iiiiit-. but a- -he was usually mated with the chestnut hor-e Quiz, they could be of no oilier color, and the ten -he had by thi- sire between them won sixty -six races, value £10,398, a large sum in those days. It may be noted thai all the cases above quoted d.-.to from over a hundred years ago. but it is readily accounted for by the fact that, whereas ill Ihe earlier volume- ii i- u-ually possible lo -ee the whale of a marc- produce ai one reference. necessity now compels the return to be given piece-r .. il. and thus with a ntares record spread over several volumes such details are no longer apparent al a glance, and entail considerable research. A few Instances occur of mares producing foals of only one sex. a notable example being Lord Boee-berys well-known mare Moatem, by Ladaa, whose cieveii produce were all fillies, and her daughters ..in disposed to follow her example, though n..t qaite so exclusively. Other marcs are frequently to be met witii whose COltS will races while their fillies are worthless ami vice-versa, a circumstance highly later-eating to the biologist. C. M. Prior in Manchester S| oil ing Chronicle.
