( 595 ) 



Considerable interest attaches to the account of a small breed of wild asses of 

 this race inhabiting the island of Socotra given in Dr. Forbes's Natural History of 

 Sokotra and Abd-el-Kuri. The anthor of this notice states that his companion and 

 himself were struck by the beauty of these animals, " and by the perfect similarity 

 in colour and markings of the large number seen. In all, the nose and a wide 

 ring round the eye, as well as the chest and belly, were white, the legs nearly so, 

 contrasting strongly with the mouse-coloured head and back, while the black stripes 

 on the shoulder and down the middle of the back, and a few somewhat irregular 

 dusky rings round the legs, were clearly defined." 



One of these asses, which stand only about 3^ ft. at the shoulder, is represented 

 in Plate II. of the work cited, and appears to be a miniature of the truly wild 

 Nubian race, the markings on the legs being confined to a few streaks near the 

 fetlocks. 



" There can be little doubt," it is observed in the work last cited, " that the 

 wild asses of Socotra are the feral descendants of animals imported many centuries 

 ago. The natives, when questioned on the subject, stated that they have been there 

 from time immemorial ; and the entire absence of colour-varieties among the number 

 we saw leads us to believe that their statement is correct." 



After remarking on the curious circumstance that the Socotran wild ass is 

 diiferent from the one inhabiting the adjacent portion of the African mainland, 

 Dr. Forbes proceeds as follows : — 



" When we remember, however, that the great trade ronte of ancient Egypt, 

 and later of the Romans which started from Beruice, passed down the Red Sea to 

 Arabian and Somaliland ports, this circumstance is less surprising. It is conseijuently 

 by no means imj^robable that the progenitors of the Socotran wild ass may have 

 actually come from a Nubian port to their present home ; and that the introduction of 

 this race into the island may very likely date back to those far distant days. The 

 difference of the Equus asinus africanus from the common domestic breed strikes 

 one at once. Among the animals employed in conveying our baggage from the shore 

 where it was landed to our camp on the Hadibu plain was a donkey which at once 

 attracted my attention, not only by the burden so disproportionate to its size which 

 it carried, but by its bright and sharply defined markings. It was only later that 

 I recognised it as a tamed wild ass." 



B. THE SOMALI WILD ASS. 

 Equus asinus somaliensis. 



Equus somaVensis, Noack, Zool. Garten. 1884. p. 374. 



Equus ktenioims (in part.), Heuglin, Acta Ac. German, vol. xviii.pl. 1 (18G1). 



Equus samaliciis, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud. 1884. p. 540, pi. "2. 



Equus nuhkanus somaiicus, Peel, Somaliland, p. 300 (1900). 



JIab. Somaliland, through Danakil and Gallaland, to the Red Sea. 



Distinguished from the Nubian race by its superior size, the paler and more 

 greyish colour, the absence of a shonlder-stripe, the slightly developed and discon- 

 tinuous dorsal stripe, and the presence of a number of distinct black bars on the 

 legs, and of a brownish patch on the front of each foot above the hoof. The head 

 and ears are also relatively shorter, with less black on the front of the tips, 

 the mane is longer and inclined to be pendent; and the white round the eye and 



