326 Zoological Society, 



" It now remains to express my reasons for believing with M. St. 

 Hilaire, that the Wild Ass of Cutch is the same as the Equus Hemi- 

 onus of Pallas. There are certainly sundry discrepancies in the ac- 

 counts of the two animals ; in the colour, the dorsal line, the fore- 

 head, and above all in the difference of mean temperatures between 

 the northern and southern habitat of the species. But all the dis- 

 crepancies of descriptions may be easily remedied by the supposition 

 that animals examined by different individuals at different seasons 

 of the year, did really slightly differ, owing to the difference of 

 seasons ; and some part of the differences may be attributed to in- 

 attention to terms. There are slight discrepancies between M. 

 St. Hilaire's description and mine, both taken from life, and the 

 animals from the same locality ; no one therefore can doubt their 

 identity. In the main features the Dzeggetai and the Wild Ass 

 of Cutch perfectly agree ; and with respect to the extent of geo- 

 graphical distributions, I have elsewhere proved that it is no bar to 

 the identity of species inhabiting mean temperatures varying nearly 

 40° of Fahr., and separated by half the earth in longitude. But in 

 the case of the Dzeggetai and the Wild Ass of Cutch, there are not 

 any insuperable difficulties of geographical position. The Wild 

 Ass of Cutch and the north of Goojrat, is not found further south 

 in India than Deesa on the banks of the Bunnas river, in lat. about 

 23° 30', nor have I heard of it to the eastward of the 75° of longitude 

 in the southern side of the Himalayan Mountains. In Cutch and 

 Northern Goojrat it frequents the salt deserts and the open plains of 

 Thoodpoor, Jaysulmer, and Bickaneor. By swimming the Indus it 

 may communicate through Scind and Buloochestand with Persia ; 

 and in Persia it evidently exists from Sir Robert Kerr Porter's de- 

 scriptions ; to the east and north of Persia abuts upon the peculiar 

 localities of the Dzeggetai, through Bucharia to the deserts of Cobi, 

 where it delights in the salt marshes, as it does in India, and thence 

 te Tartary, Thibet, and South Siberia. The latitudinal range may 

 be from 35° to 40° ; but the longitudinal range is necessarily very 

 great, probably from the 45° to the 130° or 140°, or 95° of longi- 

 tude ; but in case it ever was found in Cappadocia it would have a 

 still greater range, or 100°. If it be desirable to believe that the 

 animal migrates according to the season, there do not appear to be 

 any insuperable physical impediments ; and its extraordinary fleet- 

 ness and hardihood would sanction the belief in its making very 

 long journeys, even to the banks of the Indus. ♦ But the animal of 

 Cutch and the Burmass river, would have to cross the Indus and its 

 branches to get to the north and west ; and as they are seen at all 

 seasons of the year in their Indian localities, I am quite content to 



