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



mal ; whereas he describes his E. onager only at second-hand, 

 having never seen a specimen. Had he personally inspected 

 the latter, it is exceedingly donbtful if he would have recognized 

 the two as distinct species, or have considered the western ani- 

 mal to be the real Onager or aboriginal wild Ass. In his account 

 of the Dshiggitai he remarks : — " On ne doit pas le confondre 

 avec Pane des steppes nomme Koulan par les Kirguis occiden- 

 taux; les details que je me suis procures sur ce dernier m'ont 

 convaincu qu'il etoit Fane sauvage, FOnagre des anciens. Le 

 Koulan se tient par troupeau dans les landes montagneuses de la 

 Tatarie occidentale, comme le Dshiggitai dans les deserts de la 

 Mongolie* ." Curiously enough, we at present know the Dshig- 

 gitai or Kyang more as a mountain animal, in the elevated wilds 

 of Tibet, and the Koulan or Ghor-khur more as an inhabitant 

 of the sandy desert. 



The late Professor H. Walker referred the Tibetan Kyang to 

 Equus hemionus of Pallas ; and the Ghor-khur of this country 

 is even more satisfactorily referable to E. onager of Pallas, 

 figured by Gmelin ; but Professor Walker committed the extra- 

 ordinary mistake of figuring and describing an Indian Ghor- 

 khur for a Kyangf, so that the alleged distinctions which he 

 has pointed out are valueless. However this mistake originated, 

 there is no doubt whatever of the fact. The animal was pro- 

 cured and sent down to Calcutta by the late Mr. Thomason, 

 Governor of the N. W. Provinces, who was just in the position 

 to obtain a Ghor-khur from the western deserts, but scarcely a 

 Tibetan Kyang. No doubt it was sold to him as a Puharia or 

 " mountain " Ghor-khur ; for this epithet is continually applied 

 by the natives of India to any creature foreign to their own 

 province, as the experience of readers who have been in the 

 habit of purchasing animals in this country will readily testify. 

 By what route it reached Mr. Thomason we are uninformed, as 

 also how it came to be accompanied by a Himalayan pony, from 

 which it was inseparable \ but having compared Dr. Walker's 

 figure and description with stuffed specimens of undoubted 

 Kyangs, and with three living undoubted Ghor-khurs now in 

 Calcutta, the conclusion here arrived at is irresistible. 



* Voyages de Pallas, iv. p. 305 (French edition, 1793). In p. 309 I 

 observe a statement which is worthy of especial notice, as being made hy 

 Professor Pallas. The existence of the pouch of the Great Bustard (Otis 

 tarda) is denied by Professor Owen, though asserted by the Hon. Walter 

 Elliot to* be a characteristic of the Great Bustard of India (Eupodotis 

 Edwardsii). Of the former, however, Pallas thus writes : " Cet animal a 

 un petit trou sous la langue, qui sert d'ouverture a une bourse aqueuse, 

 qui est de la grosseur d'un ceuf d'oie, et qui pese souvent plus de trente 

 livres. On ne connoit point ici la Petite Outarde." 



t Journ. Asiat. Soc. xvii. pt. 2. p. 1, pi. 1. 



