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and possessed all the marks which distinguished this species from the Hamar or Ahmar of Sudan[!]. He stood about two hands higher than a common Ass [the race found in England is doubtless meant*] was very strong-limbed, of a rich slatish ash-colour, with the stripe running from the mane to the tail, and the cross-stripe on the shoulder; his coat very sleek and short [the summer vesture]. His nose and limbs were white; and the lower part of the neck, and between the shoulders, whitish; the mane and tail blackish; with ears broad; and I think, perhaps, longer than in the common Ass: square-built and powerful; with a keen, lively eye; and teeth ready to seize the first opportunity for a snap at any by-stander. He trotted with great speed, and cantered easily. He had been caught when very young, and was considered unusually tame for one of his species; but still he was capricious and unmanageable, and required a tremendous bit to hold him. "These Asses form valuable beasts of burthen, from their power of sustaining a three-days' march without water; but the adults are very difficult to entrap and impossible to train. The natives say that they are not gregarious [?], but consort regularly with the Ostrich, and have a keen sight and still keener scent. I have since regretted that I did not make some effort to bring this animal to England; because, I feel persuaded, that it differs, as a variety, if not as a species, from any hitherto seen in our Zoological Gardens."

Of a rich slatish ash-colour, with the humeral as well as the dorsal stripe well developed! Surely the true aboriginal Donkey, as I contended before; and, from a brief description which I have received from the present talented Secretary of the Zoological Society, P. L. Sclater, Esq., I should say identical in race with another African (Nubian ?) specimen, received some time ago in that Society's menagerie only the latter has limb-stripes, also, which is not stated of Mr. Tristram's animal; though this is of no importance whatever, except that the African Onager's limb-stripes would seem to be those commonly seen in domestic Asses; whereas the limb-markings of the Ghor-khur (when it shews them), are altogether different, consisting of narrow and close wavy and sometimes reticulating cross-lines' chiefly at the joints, and of a light fawn-colour; those of the true

The late Don Carlos had an Ass in his stud-house at Aranjuez, in 1832, that excceded fifteen hands in height. Vide the Hon'ble Richard Ford's Gatherings in Spain (1846), p. 72.

Donkey being broader, much wider apart, and black. None of the kindred races is stated, ever, to be of a slaty hue; though it now appears that both Ghor-khur and Kyang are subject to variation of colour; and, in India, the puny domestic Asses of the country exhibit precisely the same range of colouring as the Camel. A pied Ass is what I have never heard of. Here, the reported 'wild Ass' of the N. E. Shan States, noticed in p. 169 antea, may again be referred to.*

2. The alleged Wild Horses of Mongolia.

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In the late Mr. T. Witlam Atkinson's Travels in the Regions of the Upper and Lower Amoor,' &c. (2nd edit., 1861), the Appendix consists of a series of highly interesting lists of the mammalia, birds, and ordinary plants, respectively of the valley of the Amoor (divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower), of the Kirghiz steppe, Kara-taw, Ala-taw, and Tarbagatai, and of the trans-Baikal and Siberia.† EQUUS HEMIONUS is mentioned, as an inhabitant only of the upper Amoor territory; and EQUUS CABALLUS sylvestris, only in the grand last-mentioned region : but the description (in p. 325) most assuredly denotes a feral as distinguished from an aboriginally wild race of Horse, or rather of Pony, analogous to that of true wild Ass in Africa. With the wild ASINI (of different specific races), some variation of shade of colour undoubtedly does occur, as before remarked; but is exceptional. No aboriginally wild mammal is known that varies ordinarily so much in hue, as would seem to be implied by Mr. Atkinson's description of the alleged wild Horses of Mongolia.

"This animal is not like the wild [or rather feral] Horse of South America, which undoubtedly sprung from those taken into the country by the Spaniards. He is of a distinct race from the Asiatic Horse [which, of among so very many Asiatic races ? At all events, he, too, is Asiatic;] very small (not so large as an Ass), beautiful in form, having a small head and short ears, and varying in colour from black, bay, grey, and white, the latter being the most rare. He is called 'Muss' by the Kirghis. His sense of smell is very acute, which renders him most difficult to approach, and few Horses can run him down." The author incidentally mentions that these animals are found, in great herds (about May), near the foot of the mountains beyond the river * I have recently observed several domestic Asses, of a very dark colour, but having no trace of the cross.

From Dr. Leopold von Schrenk. Vide Natural History Review, Jan. 1861, p. 13.

Ili; and describes the mode of hunting them, which is to chase a herd into a narrow mountain-pass, secured on the other side, so that the poor animals run into a trap, and are there cruelly butchered with battle-axes; for "the Khirghiz consider their flesh the greatest delicacy the steppe affords."

I am disposed to consider that the herds, referred to, have about as much claim to be considered as aboriginally wild, as have the New Forest Ponies in England,-neither less nor more, or, as the feral cattle of Chillingham Park, with their likewise very suspicious colouring; the latter, too, being artificially maintained by weeding out all calves that deviate in hue. I do not think that the EQUUS CABALLUS has, anywhere, so good a claim to be regarded as aboriginally wild, at the present day, as have the One-humped Camels noticed by Rüppell, as abounding in the long stretch of desert between the valley of the Nile and the Red Sea ; but, it is to be regretted that M. Rüppell does not mention the colouring of these animals, whether, or not, subject to much variation. A large proportion of the domestic Camels of vast tracts of the African continent are white; and a prevalence of white individuals would be highly suspicious, in the herds which M. Rüppell considers as feral; but which may yet be truly as aboriginally wild as are the African wild Asses, which, also, by the way, were considered as feral by the late Prince of Canino. It must be a rare circumstance, indeed, for a Camel, left to perish by the Arabs and others, to recover; though, still, Camels may have strayed from domesticity. Should the wild herds not vary much in colour, I see no reason why they might not be regarded as probably aboriginal.*

*When I noticed what I termed the decimation of the wild herds of Elephants in Borneo (in p. 197 antea,) it should have been remarked, that, if the tuskers only were killed, it would no more affect the multiplication of the race, than does the withdrawal by emasculation of so many males of our common domestic animals. Pro tanto, therefore, the decimation argument goes for nothing.

The Mogul Emperor Báber mentions, incidentally, the occurrence of the Rhinoceros, the wild Buffalo, and the Lion, in the neghbourhood of Benáres; and wild Elephants in the vicinity of Chunâr! When nearly approaching Benares, he states-"At the station, a man said that in an island close on the edge of the camp, he had seen a Lion and a Rhinoceros. Next morning we drew a ring round the ground; we also brought Elephants to be in readiness, but no Lion nor Rhinoceros was roused. On the edge of the circle one wild Buffalo was started ***. In the jungle around Chunâr, there are many Elephants." (p. 407). Elsewhere, he asserts that the Elephant "inhabits the district of Kalpi; and the higher you advance from thence towards the East, the more do the wild Elephants increase in number. That is the tract where the Elephant is chiefly taken. There may be thirty or forty villages in Karrah and Manikpur that are occupied solely in this employment of taking Elephants." Upon which, the translator justly remarks, in a note penned about half a century ago, that "The improvement of Hindustân,

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DRAWN

SPHARGIS CORIACEA

ON STONE & LITH: BY H. M. SMITH. S. G. O. CALCUTTA, NOV: 1862.

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