of the Bushveld" was a brindle Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix and the companion of Percy FitzPatrick in their travels around the South African veldt in the 1880s. Fitzpatrick later collected tales of their adventures into a popular book of the same name. Jack the bulldog featured in the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder had a brindled coat. He was the companion and household protector of the Ingalls family in their early travels. He dies of old age at the beginning of By the Shores of Silver Lake. In Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "Pied Beauty" (1918), the concept occurs in the opening: Glory be to God for dappled things — For skies of couple-color as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim ... But not Shakespeare In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, the opening of act 4, scene 1, is often taken to refer to a brindled cat in the sense of coat pattern as described in this article, because it does contain the word "brinded": Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. However, in this context – Elizabethan English – the word "brinded" was used to mean branded, as in marked by fire. The word in Elizabethans used to describe a brindle-colored coat was "streaked". See also Dog coat Equine coat color Tabby cat Tortoiseshell cat References External links Dog Coat Colour: Genetics & pigmentation Genetics of dog brindling with reference to Shetland Sheepdogs Genetics of brindling in the Corgi Cat coat color genetics Horse coat colors Dog anatomy Animal coat colors