Brindle

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This article concerns animal color. For the village in England, see Brindle, Lancashire.

Brindle is a coat coloring pattern in animals, particularly dogs, cats, cattle, and, rarely, horses. It is sometimes described as "tiger striped", although the brindle pattern is more subtle than that of a tiger'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 Basenjis). 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 the Cardigan 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 of DNA, with the brindle pattern being an expression of two different sets of equine coat color genes in one horse.^[1]

Light brindle Great Dane	Dark brindle Great Dane	Darker brindle and white Boston Terrier	Very dark or seal brindle French Bulldog
Tiger and reverse brindle French Bulldogs	Brindle Boxer	Brindle Akita Inu, Brindle coloration is less distinct on longer-haired dogs	Spotted brindle American Bulldog
Presa Canario with brown brindle coat	Galgo Español with light brindle coat	Brindle Greyhound	Brindle Plott hound
Tan brindle Boxer	Brindle bull

Contents 1 Poetry 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Poetry

The word brindle comes from brindled, originally brinded, from an old Scandinavian word. See Wiktionary. 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," ...^[2]

[edit] See also

• dog coat
• Gerard Manley Hopkins

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Brindling in horses
• Genetics of dog brindling
• Genetics of brindling in the Corgi
• Cat coat color genetics

v • d • e Equine coat colors Solid Coat Colors Bay · Black · Chestnut (also known as Sorrel)  · Gray  · Liver  · Sooty (coat)  · White Diluted coat colors  · Buckskin · Champagne  ·  · Cremello · Dun · Grullo (variation of Dun)  · Isabelline · Palomino · Pearl dilution  · Perlino  · Silver dapple  · Smoky black and smoky cream Mixed Coat Colors and Markings Horse markings · Brindle · Leopard (pattern) (see also Appaloosa breed)  · Varnish roan · Roan · Rabicano · Pinto horse: (Patterns)  · Overo  · Sabino · Tobiano · Tovero · (Color variations): Piebald  · Skewbald · Tricoloured · Bend-Or spots · Cropout Genetics and breeding Equine coat color genetics · color breed