KIANG AND ONAGER GROUP i8i 



and to the ancients as onager, i.e. wild ass (Greek 

 onos, ass, and agrios, wild), which inhabits the 

 deserts of Asia from Syria and Persia in the west 

 to North-western India and Mongolia in the east. 

 The onager [Equus onager), which is the wild ass 

 of the Bible, is a rather smaller and paler-coloured 

 animal than the chigetai, with nearly as well marked 

 a contrast between the dark and light areas as 

 in the kiang. Standing from ii to iij hands 

 at the shoulder, it has ears of much the same 

 relative length as in the chigetai, but the hoofs 

 narrower and more ass-like, this being especially 

 the case with the front pair, which are scarcely 

 wider than the hind ones. The profile of the face 

 may be either nearly straight or markedly sinuous ; 

 the tail-tuft is of moderate size ; and the dark 

 dorsal stripe, which is always much wider than 

 in either the kiang or the chigetai, stops in some 

 cases short of the tail-tuft, and is flanked on either 

 side, at least in the posterior half of its length, 

 by a white or whitish band, joining the white 

 on the buttocks and the backs of the thighs. In 



o 



the summer coat the general colour of the upper- 

 parts is usually some shade of pale reddish fawn 

 or sandy, while the light areas, which vary from 

 pure white to whitey brown, are much the same 

 in extent as those of the kiang, but embrace more 

 of the buttocks, from which they spread along 

 the margins of the dorsal stripe, and in some cases 



