( 588 ) 



animal the present species approximates not only in its narrow hoofs, broad dorsal 

 stripe, and small tail-tuft, but likewise in the distinctly grey colour of the winter 

 coat in at least one of the local races. 



In connection with this species it may be of interest to notice that in a recent 

 memoir Dr. J. Niiesch * has reproduced t the well-known figure of some member 

 of the horse family incised on a fragment of reindeer antler of prehistoric age found 

 in the cave of Kesslerloch, Schaffhausen. This figure represents a sleuder-limbed 

 and small-headed equine, with an upright mane and long ass-like tail. The body 

 is marked with what might be taken for stripes, but I think these are intended for 

 shading, as they are scarcely more pronounced than those on the lifelike figure of 

 a reindeer reproduced by Dr. Niiesch on the same plate. 



Other noticeable features of this sketch are to be found in the distinctly concave 

 profile of the face and the large size of the ears as compared with those in many of 

 the contemporary sketches of the horse. 



By some writers the sketch in question has been regarded as indicating the 

 existence of a second species of horse in Europe during prehistoric times,! but there 

 is much to be urged against such a view, and very little in its favour. 



On the other hand. Dr. Niiesch is of opinion that the Kesslerloch sketch is 

 intended to represent the onager or ghor-khar ; and there seems much to support 

 this view, although the author has not noticed the most important evidence. Firstly, 

 attention may be directed to the slender short-haired tail, which is quite unlike 

 the same appendage in the contemporary sketches oi Eijuuis caballas.^ Secondly, 

 the ears, although not proportionately so large as in the onager, are certainly 

 superior in size to those in most of the prehistoric representations of the horse, 

 where they are so small as to be almost unnoticeable. Thirdly, we have the concave 

 profile of the face, which is almost the exact representation of that of the true, or 

 North Persian, onager — the very race of Equus onager which we should naturally 

 have expected to range into Western Europe in prehistoric times. 



Whether certain equine teeth from Kesslerloch, described and figured by 

 Dr. T. Stnder|| as those of E. onager (kemiom/s), supjiort the view that this species 

 formerly occurred in Western Europe, I am not prepared to say. 



A. THE GHOR-KHAR. 

 Equus onager indicns. 



Er/uiis imiii-tis, .Suhiler, Pruc. Zuul. Sou. Loiul. 1862. p. 1G3 ; Matschic, S.B. Ges. iiatuifui: Berlin, 

 1893. p. 208. 



(Plate XVII.) 



Ilab. Typically the Indian Desert (Bickanir, Jeysulmere, and the Rann of 

 Kutch), thence apparently ranging eastwards into Baluchistan, Afghanistan (in the 

 north of which large herds were seen during the Boundary Commission's journey), 

 and Southern Persia to the north of the Khorasan Desert. 



If there be any transition from the ghor-khar in the direction of the knlan, or 



* Denks. Schwek. Ges., vol. x.xxix., art. 1, p. 1. 



t T. c, pi. u. fig. 3. 



J See Ewart, Trans. liir/hland Soe. 1904, p. 9, where the sketch is reproduced. 



§ See Dawkins' Earhj Man in Britain, p. 220. 



II Denie. Schwei:. Get., oj>. cit:, art. 3, p. 95. 



