The Horse and the Donkey

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 36, 5 September 1907, Page 34

The Horse and the Donkey

The ancestors of tie horse were accustomed to roam.' over the plains, where every tuft of grass or brush . might conceal an enemy waiting to spring upon them. Under these circumstances they must often have saved their' lives by starting quickly back .or jumping to one side when> they came without warning upon some strange object. This is a habit which has not left the animal even after long years of domestication.' On the other hand, the donkey is descended from animals which lived among the hills, where there were precipices and dangerous declivities, and from these conditions resulted his slowness and surefootedness. His ancestors were not so liable to sudden attack's from wild beasts and snakes. Besides, sudden and wild starts would have been positively dangerous to them. Consequently they learned to avoid the verytrick which has been so useful to the horse.

The habit of eating thistles, which is peculiar alone to the donEey, is also descended from' these ancestors. In the dry, barren localities which they inhabited there was often little food ; hence they, learned to eat hard, dry, and even prickly 'plants when there was nothing else.