Zoological Society, 323 



nales du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle*. Though I have been an 

 amateur of Natural History for a great part of my life, I must con- 

 fess that it is to a private copy of M. St. Hilaire's paper, obligingly 

 presented to the Zoological Society of London, that I am indebted 

 for my first view of a coloured representation of the Dzeggetai, 

 and it was only last week that this fell into my hands. I have 

 been thus particular in noticing the want of readily accessible fi- 

 gures of animals (for my observation will apply to many other ani- 

 mals beside the Dzeggetai,) as this want of means to correct my 

 judgement led me into the belief that a recently imported Wild Ass 

 of Cutch, which was sent to England by an old friend of my own 

 from Bombay, was a different species from the Dzeggetai of Pallas, 

 which is represented as inhabiting the desert regions between the 

 rivers Onon and Argun, on the southern parts of Siberia, through 

 Tartary, even to the frontiers of China and Thibet ; and I might have 

 been justified in my supposition had I attached the same weight that 

 some naturalists do, to the opinion that the geographical distribution 

 of animals is regulated by mean temperature, the Dzeggetai of Pallas 

 inhabiting the borders of the arctic regions, the Wild Ass of India the 

 borders of the torrid zone. There might be yet further question for 

 doubt, did we take the description of colour from Griffith's edition of the 

 ' Regne Animal,' in which it is stated ' there is a black dorsal line 

 which enlarges on the crupper. In winter the hair is very long ; 

 but of a smooth and shining appearance in summer. The colour of 

 the body is an uniform light bay, but in winter it partakes more of 

 redf ;' and the forehead is described as * flatted and narrow.' 



"M. St. Hilaire, who describes from the life, says ' Lesdeuxcou- 

 leurs dominantes de YHemione, le blanc et l'isabelle passent l'une a 

 l'autre par nuances insensibles sur le ventre, vers sa partie inferieure, 

 et sur le cou, presque a egal distance de son bord superieur, et de 

 son bord inferieur. Sur la tete au contraire, le blanc n'occupe 

 guere que le museau et la gorge, le cou £tant presque entierement 

 isabelle. Sur les membres, contrairement a ce qui a lieu sur le corps, 

 c'est le blanc qui domine,' &c. Again, ' Tout ce system e de colo- 

 ration est rebasse superieurement par une bande dorsale longitudi- 

 nale, non pas noire comme on Fa dit, mais d'un brun legerement rous- 

 satre.' And now with respect to the change of colour with the season 

 of the year, instead of getting redder in winter it would appear from 

 the observations of M. Fred. Cuvier, that thet-^ammal a le poil plus 

 gris, plus pale et plus long l'hiver que i'6teV These discrepancies 



* t. iv. p. 97. f Quarto edit., vol. iii. p. 460. 



y2 



