THE DOMESTIC ASS AND NUBIAN WILD ASS. 



653 



raised for the purpose of breeding the heavy-draught 

 Poitou mule (p. 673). According to Sanson, the average 

 height of these Poitou donkeys is 14 hands, and they 

 are sometimes as high as 15. i. The donkeys of Spain, 

 Portugal, Italy and Egypt are of a serviceable kind, and 

 are larger than those in this country, because special 

 attention, to a greater or less extent, is paid to their 



Photo by] 



Fig. 614. — Nubian wild ass. 



[L. IIEDLAXD. 



breeding. The donkey used by native washermen in India 

 is the smallest and most miserable of its kind. It is often 

 not more than 8 hands high, and, from overloading at a 

 far too early age, its hocks frequently are so much turned 

 in, that they rub against each other at every step, even 

 when the animal is at liberty. The donkeys bred in 

 Ireland, though numerous, are of a very poor class. 



The donkey associates itself to man as readily as does 

 the dog, and, unlike the horse, evinces little or no inclina- 

 tion to return to a wild state of life after it has become 



