370 ADDITIONAL NOTICES OF SPECIES 



species is neither the Djigguitai nor the Quagga, and still 

 less the Ass or the Zebra. It would therefore constitute a 

 species which is now lost [?] ; supposing that it has really 

 existed with the form and proportions which are bestowed 

 on it in the antique. On this point,'* M. Serres continues, 

 *^ we may again remark that this is the more probable, since 

 the figures of the mosaic are generally so well delineated, as 

 to lead us to conclude that they were copied from nature." 



To judge, however, from the representation of this mosaic 

 published in the Appendix to Shaw's ^ Travels in Barbary,' 

 1 should be disposed to place no reliance on the authenticity 

 of the figure there indicated by the name mentioned, at least 

 as representing a peculiar species ; for I do not perceive in 

 what respect it differs from a horse, excepting that no hair 

 whatever appears on the tail. Whether Shaw has supplied 

 an accurate copy of the original, I have no means of deter- 

 mining. M. Serres contends that the Hippotiger of Dion 

 refers to the Zebra, and that therefore the ancients were ac- 

 quainted with species peculiar to South Africa ; this position 

 is untenable, since the range of the Zebra extends northward 

 to Abyssinia; and the 'Karco^esjr of ^lian, referred by Cu- 

 vier to the White -tailed Gnoo, is equally applicable (as sug- 

 gested by Mr. Ogilby) to the Cape Buffalo, which also extends 

 northward to Abyssinia; or supposing the Catoblepas Brook- 

 sii of Col. Hamilton Smith to be a true species, it may allude 

 to this, the locality of which is unknown^. By the term Djig- 

 guitai {E, hemiomis), M. Serres probably alludes to the Khur ; 

 and he observes that the animal in question was domesticated 

 by the Greeks in many provinces of Asia. I have somewhere 

 read that three different Hebrew appellations are rendered 

 by the term j4ss in the various translations of the Old Tes- 

 tament, and that the Asses of Saul were of the wild kind, 

 denominated in their native region K/iur, which sufficiently 

 accounts for their alleged value. 



^' Wild Asses" of some sort, it would appear, are ^^ common 

 in the districts of the Thebaid " (vide Wilkinson's ^Domestic 

 Manners of the Ancient Egyptians/ iii. 21.), and a "wild 

 Ass" is mentioned in the narrative of Lander's expedition 

 (p. 571.). Are these of the striped kind noticed by Bruce ? 

 Or are they of the species termed " Isabelline Zebra" by 

 Levaillant ? Or may they not be Khurs, and at the same 

 time identical with Levaillant's animal ? In the island of So-^ 

 cotra, Lieut. Wellsted mentions that " Amidst the hills over 

 Tamarida, and on the plain contiguous to it, there are a great 

 number of Asses, which were described to me as different 

 ^ For note, see the end of the present Number. 



