Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 239 



would scern to be absolutely alike, with a heavy but well-formed 

 head, longish ears, rather a short neck, and body and limbs of 

 exquisite tournure, indicative of extraordinary fleetness. I have 

 not seen the living Kyang or Djiggetai; but the croup is di- 

 stinctly higher than the withers in the living Ghor-khur or 

 Koulan. The colour of the Kyang is much deeper and more 

 rufous than that of the Ghor-khur, and there is considerably 

 more of white about the latter. The Ghor-khur is of the isabel- 

 line or sandy hue of most animals of the desert, but with a 

 distinct rufescent tinge ; its dorsal stripe would seem to be ge- 

 nerally much broader than in the Kyang, though varying in 

 breadth in different individuals ; but it may be remarked that 

 this stripe varies much in width in the domestic Donkey, at 

 least in the diminutive Indian race of Asses, being in some in- 

 dividuals of the latter quite as broad as in any Ghor-khur : this 

 mesial stripe, however, seems to be broader down the tail in the 

 Kyang, and is continued down to the black terminal tuft ; 

 whereas in the Ghor-khur (perhaps with exceptions) the line is 

 narrow on the tail, and terminates at some distance above the 

 tuft. Again, in the Ghor-khur the dorsal stripe (which in both 

 is of a dark chocolate- colour rather than black) is more or less 

 conspicuously bordered with white (as likewise in the Hemippus), 

 and this white extends broadly and very conspicuously towards 

 the tail and along the hind margin of the buttocks, where, in 

 the Kyang (as also, I since find, in some Ghor-khurs), the hue 

 of the upper parts is only moderately diluted. Again, there is 

 a much stronger tendency in the Ghor-khur for the white of the 

 under parts to extend upwards from the flanks, in some so much 

 as to join that bordering the broad dorsal streak, thus insu- 

 lating the isabelline hue of the haunch ; and the zebra-markings 

 of the limbs, common (though not invariably present) in the 

 Ghor-khur, have been denied to be ever traceable in the Kyang, 

 and they certainly are not so in three skins of the latter under 

 examination. In conformity with the general tendency to the 

 extension of the white, as before remarked, that of the muzzle 

 also reaches higher in the Ghor-khur than in either the Kyang 

 or Hemippus ; and lastly, the humeral cross, when apparent, 

 shows itself differently, being faintly visible in full development 

 and placed very forward in the Kyang, while in the Ghor-khur, 

 when it does occur, it is a black cross more or less developed, 

 though never probably to so great an extent as in the true 

 Ass. 



Moorcroft, alluding to the Quagga, remarks that the Kyang 

 is " without stripes " (evidently meaning such as the Quagga ex- 

 hibits), " except a reported one along each side of the back to the 

 tail. These were distinctly seen in a foal, but were not distin- 



