Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 247 



try ; but the peasants very seldom succeed in catching or de- 

 stroying them. A mixed breed [!] is sometimes seen in the 

 villages. From the description of the Arabs, I conceive that the 

 Zebra [A, Burchellii~\ also exists in these deserts. The Nile Ass 

 seems larger than the common one ; but we were at too great a 

 distance to observe them particularly. The peasants seldom 

 chase them, but, with a good horse, it is not very difficult*." 



Both "wild Asses" and "Zebras" are noticed by Mr. W. C. 

 Kirk, in his ' Report on the Route from Tajurra to Ankobar \J > 

 Riippell has determined this northern Zebra to be the A. Bur- 

 chellii, or Dauw of the Cape colonists; the Equus zebra of 

 Burchell, as distinguished from his E. montanus; and un- 

 doubtedly the true Hippotigris of the ancients, if not also the 

 original " Zebra " of Pigafetta, from Congo J, — -the wild Paard 

 of the Dutch colonists, or " Mountain Zebra n of Burchell, being 

 the Equus or Asinus zebra of modern technical nomenclature. 

 This I mention because the French zoologists, from Cuvier to 

 M. Isidore St.-Hilaire§, persist in the mistake of identifying the 

 " Zebre de montagne " with the Dauw or A. Burchellii. 



Bruce notices " Zebras " as being " found in Abyssinia only 

 in the south-west extremity of Kuora amid the Shangalla and 

 Galla, in Narea and CaiF, and in the mountains of Dyre and 

 Tegla, and thence to the southward." " Wild Asses, too," he 

 remarks, " I have frequently seen alive, but never dead : in neck, 

 head, face, and tail, very like ours, only their skins are streaked, 

 not spotted !" Perhaps he alludes to occasional bars on the 

 limbs, like the wavy lines on those of the Ghor-khur, which Bell 

 seems also to refer to. The wild Ass of North Africa is not 

 mentioned in Dr. BartVs work ; but at the Meeting of the 

 British Association for 1858, M. R. Schlagintweit made some 

 remarks relative to the Ghor-khur (as reported in the f Athe- 

 naeum'), and stated that Dr. Barth had lately told him that, ac- 

 cording to the description which he (M. R. Schlagintweit) had 

 given him, " he thinks the Asses which he saw in Africa identical 

 with the Ghor-khurs of Sindh and Beluchistan." This can 

 hardly be the case. And does the following notice refer to the 

 ordinary wild Ass of North-east Africa ? I very strongly suspect 

 otherwise. Col. C. H. Smith remarks: " We have seen a pair 

 of these animals brought from Cairo; they were equal in size 

 to an ordinary mule, neatly if not elegantly formed, white in 



* Travels in Ethiopia, p. 41. 



t Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. xii. 234 ; and for another notice of an African 

 wild Ass, ibid. x. 461. In the Narrative of Lander's expedition (p. 5/1) a 

 "wild Ass" is mentioned, whatever this may refer to. 



X Col. C. H. Smith considers this northern " Zebra " to be distinct, and 

 styles it Hippotigris antiquorum, but, I think, on very insufficient evidence. 



§ Comptes Rendus, 1855, p. 1215. 



