Mustang

mustang [Sp. mesteño=a stray], small feral horse of the W United States. Mustangs are descended from escaped Native American horses, which in turn were descended from horses of North African blood, brought to the New World by the Spanish c.1500. Mustangs have evolved their own distinguishing traits: they are small, swift, hardy, and intelligent—well suited to plains conditions. As ranching expanded in North America, cowboys began rounding up mustangs for use as cow ponies. Hence, in the terminology of ranchers, mustang often refers to a cow pony of feral stock, and the term bronco is used for an untamed mustang. A cayuse (after the Cayuse of the NE United States) is a domestic Native American horse. Although the mustang, which has spent many generations in the wild, is somewhat different from the cayuse, the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Cow ponies of mustang descent have been crossed with other breeds of horse, so that all horses of the W United States probably have mustang blood. The mustang, a variety of Equus caballus, is classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Perissodactyla, family Equidae.

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P-51

 or Mustang

Fighter aircraft of World War II. A single seat, single-engine monoplane produced for Britain's RAF, it went into service in 1941 and later was adopted by the U.S. Army Air Force. The original P-51 had four .50-caliber and four .30-caliber machine guns and a camera for photoreconnaissance; its maximum speed was 390 mph (630 kph). The P-51D, a later model, had six .50-caliber machine guns and a maximum speed of 440 mph (700 kph). A superb long-range fighter, it played a significant part in defeating the German Luftwaffe.

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mustang

a small breed of horse, often wild or half wild, found in the southwestern US

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Mustang 

a naturalized horse that was widespread on the prairies of North America. The local inhabitants—the Indians—hunted mustangs for meat and hides. In the 18th century the mustang population numbered 4 million. In the 20th century this figure has drastically declined to about 20,000 and continues to fall.