Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 235 



While identifying the Kyang with the Dshiggitai, however, 

 Professor Walker little imagined that he was making the same 

 mistake that he considered M. Frederic Cuvier and others to 

 have done, in referring the Ghor-khur also to E. hemionus. I 

 find that the Ghor-khur accords to the minutest particular with 

 the Koulan or E. onager of Pallas, figured by Professor Gmelin 

 from an occasional variety bearing a short humeral stripe (which 

 is not rare also in Indian specimens of either sex*), from the 

 presence of which the identity of this animal with the true Ass 

 has been generally, but erroneously, inferred. Of the two indi- 

 viduals then at St. Petersburg, which are described by Professor 

 Gmelin, it may be remarked that his male only had the shoulder- 

 stripe, and his female not a trace of it ; and he was informed 

 that individuals had been seen with a second shoulder-stripe. 

 This I have myself observed in the domestic Ass, and even a 

 third and fourth, more or less developed — the additional ones 

 being of variable length, and given off along the back as far as 

 the loins, — though it is very rarely that more than a single stripe 

 occurs, and I have seen only one domestic Ass without the 

 shoulder-stripe. Many of our Indian donkeys have also well- 

 defined transverse bars on the limbs, which are permanent for 

 life (not, as described by Professor T. Bell, peculiar to the foal) ; 

 they are often black and strongly contrasting, placed rather 

 distantly apart, and they vary much in length. It is remark- 

 able that some races of horses also have the same markings. 

 The well-known " eel-back dun " of England is so named from 

 its black dorsal stripe bearing a supposed resemblance to an 

 eel; the Indian Kattyawar (or rather, Cutch Horse) has gene- 

 rally, in addition, the shoulder-stripe and Zebra-markings on the 

 limbs black and very distinct and conspicuous; and the same 

 may be observed of many of the Shan ponies from the indepen- 

 dent states north of Burma, many of which are brought annually 

 to Maulmein, and not a few thence to Calcutta. I have seen 

 one of these, of the pale drab colour usual in the Ass, with the 

 cross and the stripes on the limbs deep black and most conspi- 

 cuous, the dorsal stripe being continued down the tail just as in 

 the Asinine series ; yet in all other respects it was a handsome 

 robust pony, with copious equine mane and tail, showing no 

 approximation whatever to the Asinine group in its structure or 

 voice. Those who believe that the domestic Horse is a com- 

 pound species derived from a plurality of aboriginal races may 



* Jacquemont notices such a specimen, which he saw in Barrackpore 

 Park (Voyage dans l'lnde, i. 170; vide also Journ. Asiat. Soc. xxvi. 240). 

 In Pallas's ' Zoographia Rosso- Asiatica/ which I have seen since penning 

 the above, there is a coloured figure of E. onager, but much too rufous in 

 the particular copy to accord with the description. 



16* 



