654 



ASSES, ZEBRAS AND EQUINE HYBRIDS. 



domesticated. It is docile, has great power of maintaining 

 its strength on food which would be almost entirely 

 innutritions for horses, and is about 50 per cent, more 

 long-lived than these animals. It is useful in slow draught, 

 but its extreme laziness makes it very inferior in saddle, 

 as we can learn by riding donkeys in Egypt. 



Somaliland Wild Ass {Equus asinus somalicus, Fig. 



Pho0 bij] 



Fig. 615. — Somaliland wild ass. 



[ilERR Mexges. 



615). — This wild ass, as we can learn by its name, is a 

 native of Somaliland. It is characterised by black, thin, 

 transverse stripes (about ten in number on each leg) on its 

 fore-arms, gaskins, shanks and pasterns ; by the absence 

 of a shoulder stripe ; and by a narrow, faint-coloured 

 stripe down the back. It is of a French-grey colour, and 

 has a light coloured muzzle. According to Mr. Lort 

 Phillips (Tegetmeier and Sutherland's Horses, Asses, 

 Zebras and Mules), who has had experience among these 



