Equus. 401 
as many foals as they succeed in tiring, which lie down when utterly 
fatigued, and suffer themselves to be bound and carried off. In general 
they refuse sustenance at first, and about one-third only of those taken 
are reared; but these command high prices, and find a ready sale with 
the native princes. The profits are shared by the party, who do not 
attempt a second chase in the same year, lest they should scare the herd 
from the district, as these men regard the sale of a few ghor-khurs 
annually as a regular source of subsistence.’ 
“This wild ass is very shy and difficult to approach, and has great 
speed. A full-grown one has, however, been run down fairly and 
speared more than once.” 
I remember we had a pair of these asses in the Zoological Gardens at 
Lahore in 1868 ; they were to a certain extent tame, but very skittish, 
and would whinny and kick on being approached. I never heard of 
their being mounted. 
It is closely allied to, if not identical with, the wild ass of Assyria 
(Equus hemippus). The Hon. Charles Murray, who presented one of 
the pair in the London Zoological Gardens in 1862, wrote the following 
account of it to Dr. Sclater: ‘‘ The ghour or kherdecht of the Persians 
is doubtless the onager of the ancients. Your specimen was caught 
when a foal on the range of mountains which stretch from Kermanshah 
on the west in a south-easterly direction to Shiraz ; these are inhabited 
by several wild and half-independent tribes, the most powerful of which 
are the Buchtzari. The ghour is a remarkably fleet animal, and 
moreover so shy and enduring that he can rarely be overtaken by the 
best mounted horsemen in Persia. For this reason they chase them 
now, as they did in the time of Xenophon, by placing relays of horsemen 
at intervals of eight or ten miles. These relays take up the chase 
successively and tire down the ghour. ‘The flesh of the ghour is 
esteemed a great delicacy, not being held unclean by the Moslem, as it 
was in the Mosaic code. I do not know whether this species is ever 
known to bray like the ordinary domestic ass. Your animal, whilst 
under my care, used to emit short squeaks and sometimes snorts not 
unlike those of a deer, but she was so young at the time that her voice 
may not have acquired its mature intonation.” 
No. 427. Equus HEMIONUS. 
The Kiang or Wild Ass of Thibet. 
Native Names.—Xiang or Dizightai, Thibetan. 
Hasitat.—Thibet and Central Asia ; Ladakh. 
DESCRIPTION.—Darker in hue than the gho-khur, especially on the 
flanks, contrasting abruptly with the white of the under-parts. It has 
2D 
