372 NOTICES OF SPECIBS OF THE GENUS EQUUS. 



appellation Goor-khur, as an inhabitant of the deserts between 

 India and Affghanistan. " It is called/' he says, '' Gour by 

 the Persians, and is usually seen in herds, though often singly, 

 straying away in the wantonness of liberty/' Tliose exhi- 

 bited in European menageries have been mostly, if not ex- 

 clusively, captured in the Thurr, or great sandy desert north 

 of Cutch. The " wild Asses'" of Mesopotamia, on the other 

 hand, and at the foot of Taurus, as mentioned by Mr. Ains- 

 worth, those of Arabia, and perhaps of the Thebaid and else- 

 where on the African continent, are probably all of the kind 

 that has no mesial stripe down the back, as noticed in two in- 

 dividuals by Sir R. K. Porter. If it should turn out that the Khur 

 and Ghoor-khur are really distinct, as also the Kiang^ of Thi- 

 bet, the near approximation of so many species (to which may 

 be added the common Ass) will render it desirable that the 

 Equus hemionus of Pallas should be compared with the " wild 

 Ass" of Cutch, which latter, I believe, has never any trace of 

 colouring upon the limbs, except a very faint tinge at their com- 

 mencement, whereas the other appears to have the exterior sur- 

 face of its limbs not much paler than the parts above. The "wild 

 Ass " of M. Gmelin, also, figured with a cross upon its back in 

 the continuation of M. Schreber's work by M. Wagner, and 

 remarkable for the silvery white of its under parts ascending 

 from the flanks in front of each haunch to join that on 

 either side of the dorsal line, a particular carefully described 

 as well as figured, might advantageously be compared with 

 the domestic E. asinus. The female observed by M. Gmelin 

 had no cross stripe over its shoulder, such as was found in 

 the male, and is, I believe, invariably constant in the com- 

 mon animal ', whilst in the Mongolian wild Ass, M. Gmelin 

 was informed that the mark referred to is by no means 

 constant (as his two specimens testified), and that some- 

 times there is even a double cross-band over the shoulders. 

 Prof. Gmelin succeeded in bringing his female wild ass, 

 together with a colt, to St. Petersburgh ; and he remarks 

 that she sometimes passed two days without drinking, and 

 preferred brackish water to fresh : she carried her head 

 higher than the common tame Ass, her ears well elevated, 

 and evinced much spirit and vivacity in all her movements, 

 such as we are accustomed to observe of the Djigguitai. 



Mr. Moorcroft, the same writer from whose ' Travels ' I 

 quoted the previous notices of the Kiang, remarks, in the ac- 

 count of his ^ Journey to Lake Manasurovara' (' As. Res.^ vol. 

 xii.), that "the wild Horse {E,quagga), the wild Ass (GAoor- 



^ It should be mentioned that the red-legged Chough (Fregilus graculus), 

 which abounds in many districts of the Himalayahs, is termed Kyany in 

 Bhootan. Vide ' Asiatic Researches/ xvii. 16. 



