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



well infer that they perceive, in the markings described, indica- 

 tions of certain of those races*. 



In some examples of the Ghor-khur (as that figured by Dr. 

 Walker, from a drawing from life by Dr. Cantorf), there are no 

 traces whatever of markings on the limbs ; others show slight 

 traces, more or less distinct, chiefly at the joints ; and others, 

 again, have the entire limbs strongly marked : but the stripes 

 do not resemble those often seen in domestic donkeys, or in the 

 races of Horse referred to ; in general they are wavy lines of 

 fawn, often more or less crossed or reticulate, but in some more 

 regular and Zebra-like, upon observing which I remembered the 

 description in Bell's ■ Travels in Tartary ' (i. p. 224) of the " wild 

 Asses" found in the country of the Tzulimm Tartars, "the hair 

 of which is waved, white and brown, like that of a tiger :" he 

 " had seen many of their skins." So far as the limbs are con- 

 cerned, this description is quite intelligible with reference to 

 many Indian examples of the Ghor-khur. 



It would appear that these limb-markings are never seen in 

 the Kyang ; but a narrow black ring adjoining the hoof would 

 seem to be constant in this animal, as was first pointed out to 

 me by Major Robert C. Tytler, the proprietor of the three 

 Ghor-khurs now in Calcutta. This mark is also more or less 

 developed in the Ghor-khur, but is by no means conspicuous 

 in either race. In two stuffed specimens of the Kyang, old and 

 young, in the Society's museum, there is no black shoulder- 

 stripe, but in place of it the coat is there distinctly of a deeper 

 shade of hue, so that the stripe is faintly indicated, as is best 

 seen from a moderate distance. The same is observable, when 

 especially looked for, in an unmounted skin. In one only of 

 Major Tytler's three Ghor-khurs there is a small narrow black 



* It does not follow, because the hybrid offspring of the Horse and Ass 

 is mostly infertile (the male mule perhaps always), that distinct species of 

 the Equine or Caballine group, or of the Asinine group, respectively, should 

 not produce a prolific intermediate race, hybrid with hybrid. In the Lon- 

 don Zoological Gardens there was formerly a triple hybrid, the sire of 

 which was a Quagga, and the dam a cross between the Ass and Zebra. 



The curious animal figured by Col. C. H. Smith, in his volume on the 

 Solidungula in the ( Naturalist's Library,' under the name Asinus hippagrus 

 (vel equuleus), appears to me to be a Chinese hinny, or offspring of the 

 Horse and she- Ass. Its stripes might have been derived from either 

 parent, if not (and very probably) from both of them. Col. Smith also 

 figures what he terms an " eel-back dun " from the Ukraine, with the 

 humeral cross-stripe, but no limb-markings ; in the text, however, he 

 repeatedly alludes to those markings as occurring sometimes in the " eel- 

 jack dun " race. 



f Journ. Asiat. Soc. xvii. pt. 2. p. 1, pi. 1. This published figure is 

 bad, whatever the drawing may have been. There is no anatomy about it, 

 and the grace and beautiful contour of the creature are not at all pourtrayed. 

 The head in particular, and the haunch, are exceedingly ill-represented. 



