93 



children ; it was pcrmitted to attend at breakfast-time, and eat from 

 the table ; but manifestine as it grew up symptoms of ill nature (no 

 doubt having been heartily teased,) it was put on board the Marąuess 

 of Hastings, Captain Clarkson, and brought to England : there can- 

 not therefore be any doubt respecting its origin and its history ; and 

 having oue animal certainly from Cutch, we have a positive Standard 

 of comparison. Likę the preceding it is a malė, and with the ex- 

 ception of being younger and smaller, and with a less short and 

 glossy coat, it is identical \vith it in every feature ; and these two 

 agree in all essentials \vith M. St. Hilaire's very able and minute de- 

 scription and coloured figure of a female in the Paris Menagerie. 

 There is one point only in which there may be a difference, and there 

 are two or three others in \vhich there is a diflFerence. M.St. Ki- 

 laire does not statė whether the forehead be flat or prominent ; and 

 though the figure represents it to be somewhat raised, it is certainly 

 not so much so as in the animals in the Zoological Gardens : with 

 them the frontai development is a very prominent feature ; such fea- 

 ture, however, being opposed to the descriptions in Griffith's 

 ' Rėgne Animal.' M. St. Hilaire also mentions anotlier character, 

 ■which it reąuired some little perseverance to discover in the larger 

 animal in the Zoological Gardens, the smaller animal being absolutely 

 destitute of it. He statės that on the isabella colour on the limbs, 

 there are transverse lines or verj' narrow bands of a darker isabeUa, 

 in the manner of the markings of the Zebrą. These lines had never 

 been observed by the keepers in the Zoological Gardens, and for 

 soraetime I could not discover them ; but at lašt with a reflected 

 light I could just discem the transverse lines noticed by M. St. Hi- 

 laire, but I was not so fortunate with the smaller animal. M. St. 

 Hilaire, on the authority of M. Geoffroy-Chateau, \vho sent to him a 

 description of a malė Dzeggetai in Cross's Menagerie in London, 

 States that there was a disposition in the doi'sal band on that animal, 

 by lateral projections at the withers, to form a small cross, likę that 

 of an ass. There is not the slightest trace or manifestation of such 

 a thingin either of the animals in the Zoological Gardens. Finally, 

 M. St. Hilaire speaks of the blending by insensible degrees of the 

 isabella and white markings of the Dzeggetai, but in our animals the 

 lines of demarcation are sufficiently strong. 



" M. St. Hilaire's humorous description of the habits of kicking of 

 the female at Paris, is laughably exact with respect to our animals, 

 particularly the smaller one. I had sent one of the keepers into its 

 yard with some hay, to tlirow down before it, to keep it stationary 

 (atleast itsbody) \vhLle I took a rapid sketch of it with the assistance 

 of the camera lucida. The moment the hay was thrown down, the 

 creature turned round and commenced flinging out most vigorously 

 for some time, although the man was gone, and the odd beast all the 

 time was gravely munching its hay. So petulant were both these 

 creatures, that after having sketched them I could not get any of the 

 keepers to take their mccisurements, nor could I succeed in obtaining 

 them, but by getting them thrown down, which I declined to do. With 

 respect to the swiftncss of the Wild Ass of Cutch, \vithout ąuoting 



