- Brindle
:"This article concerns animal color. For the village in England, see
Brindle, Lancashire .Brindle is a coat coloring pattern in animals, particularly
dog s,cat s,cattle , and, rarely,horse s. It is sometimes described as "tiger striped", although the brindle pattern is more subtle than that of atiger 's coat. The streaks of color are usually darker than the base coat, which is often tawny or grayish, although very dark markings can be seen on a coat that is only slightly lighter.The brindle pattern may also take the place of tan in tricolor coats of some dog breeds (such as
Basenji s). This coloration looks very similar to tricolor, and can only be distinguished at close range. Dogs of this color are often described as "trindle". It can also occur in combination with blue merle in the points, or as a brindle merle, in breeds such as theCardigan Welsh Corgi , though the latter is not acceptable in the show ring.In horses, brindle coloring is extremely rare and may be either caused by or somehow linked to
chimerism , resulting in an animal with two sets ofDNA , with the brindle pattern being an expression of two different sets ofequine coat color genes in one horse. [ [http://www.lovasok.hu/index.php?i=6944 Image of brindle horse] (no free images currently available)]Poetry
The word brindle comes from brindled, originally brinded, from an old Scandinavian word. See . The concept occurs in the opening of 'Pied Beauty' (1877) by
Gerard Manley Hopkins , a poem about dappled, streaky, subtly-varied Nature, where he compares 'skies of couple-colour' to a 'brinded cow'.The opening of Act Four, Scene One of
William Shakespeare 's "Macbeth " is::"Thrice the brindled cat hath mewed," ..." [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=dvn3uent7VcC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=%22%E2%80%9CThrice+the+brindled+cat+hath+mewed,%E2%80%9D%22+macbeth&source=web&ots=X1vqFF7OOr&sig=k5Zt99ePYuUOU3cnz-4rKLCdC-4 "Macbeth" reference] ]
ee also
*dog coat
*Gerard Manley Hopkins References
External links
* [http://members.aol.com/brindlehos/ Brindling in horses]
* [http://bowlingsite.mcf.com/Genetics/Brindle.html Genetics of dog brindling]
* [http://www.cwcorgi.com/Aragorn/genetics.htm Genetics of brindling in the Corgi]
* [http://www.tenset.co.uk/catgen/ Cat coat color genetics]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.