504 Home Nature-Study Course. 



still roam in Persia and Armenia as they did in the time when Xenophon 

 described them in the Anabasis four hundred years before the Christian 

 era. These wild asses are very fleet of foot, and have always been hunted 

 by the Persian monarchs. Xadir Shah who lived two hundred years ago, 

 considered the running down of one of these wild creatures with grey- 

 hounds as equal to winning a battle or conquering a province ; its flesh 

 was regarded as superior to the best venison ; its hide was made into 

 Oriental shagreen, a very valuable leather, entirely waterproof. George 

 Washington introduced the donkey to the agriculture of the United 

 States. As it was prohibited to export these animals from Spain, the 

 King of Spain, learning of George Washington's desire, sent him two 

 as a present. The donkey is used extensively to-day in Mexico and the 

 soutliwest United States, where" its endurance as a beast of burden makes 

 it most useful ; it is called a burro and one of its chief uses in these dry 

 countries is that of water-carrier, the water being put in goat or sheep 

 skin bags or earthen ollas and hung over the burro's back. Get the 

 pupils to look up " panniers " in the dictionary and note their use with 

 donkeys. The best breeds of donkeys are now found in Smyrna, the 

 Island of Cyprus, Spain and Peru. In Spain they are clipped in fanciful 

 figures, and the gypsies have the monopoly of thus ornamenting them. 



LESSOX LXVI. 



THE DONKEY. 



Purpose. — To call attention to the peculiarities of the donkey's 

 appearance. 



X'otice that its legs are shorter in comparison with its body than 

 are those of a horse ; that its head is wider, and that the neck is shorter : 

 the length of the ears is the first feature one notices in the animal. Large 

 ears always mean acuteness of hearing, and when donkeys were in the wild 

 state they had need to hear the approach of their enemies from afar. 

 The arrangement of the teeth is the same as in the horse ; the hoof is 

 longer and narrower and more upright than that of a horse and the joint 

 above it. called the pastern, is shorter and stiffer. which renders its feet 

 less likely to become lame ; and as the hoof is thicker and therefore 

 tougher than that of the horse it is able to climb mountains and rocky 

 trails where a horse's feet would give out. The tail of the donkey is a 

 tassel, and the mane is not nearly so long as that of the horse. Its coat 

 is shaggy, which enables it to endure the cold better than the short-haired 

 horse. The color of the donkey should be mouse color with a dark line 

 along the backbone, and a dark transverse bar across the shoulders. 

 Compare the whinnying of the horse with the braying of the donkey. 



