Defcription of the Equus Hemionus. 116 
mares copiilate readily with the latter, and produce mules of 
a red fox colour, which are exceedingly {wift. They are 
very untractable; and when caught in gins are fometimes 
carried to the king of the Prafians. Thofe of two years old, 
or under, can be tamed; but the old ones are as wild as the 
fierceft of the carnivorous animals *,’”’ 
For the earlieft account of the exiftence of this fpecies of 
the horfe in modern times, we are indebted to the diligent 
Mefferfchmidt, who from the year 1720 to 1726. travelled 
through Siberia, by command of Peter I. for the purpofe of 
making difcoveriesin natural hiftory. Befides this traveller 
and Gmelin, who explored the fame diftri€ts twenty years 
after, no one before me has had an opportunity of examining 
this animal with the eye of a naturalift. Mefferfchmidt dif= 
tinguifhes the dfhiggetai, very properly, from the horfe and 
the afs; and notices it in his Xexium Ifidis Sibirice, or Ca- 
talogue of the natural productions of Siberia; the manufeript 
of which is {till to be feen in the academy of Peterfburgh de 
under the name of Mulus dauuricus focundus Ariftotelis, 
Cappadocicus Erefit, which name was employed in the 
printed catalogue of the colleétion of natural curiofities at 
Peterfburgh, where a ftuffed fkin of it, deftroyed afterwards 
by a fire, was preferved, and which Buffon has improperly 
taken for an obfcure definition of the onager or proper wild 
* By Woes frre ve dypisov wai cyey rotdtoy gicly aythas  ouiy aaa ivorrin 
Coy Fae smTUS Laroztvery Extivas AEyyot, wai HOicbar TH eulke, Kak Thre hpesovag 
amps tay pay ual Byny dpomiads, Ourdipes OE Kal yapyursic dAAws' arodeypm¢ 
Bb cares dictics tira dvayer Ia FH Tav Mpairiny Racvaet peor’ xai diereic piv 
baranbras mh dvaier Gas tn qarturiy, wpicRiraras de por Doapipew Tin mapyapor 
Sipias xa) c=propdyer ande ty. /EBlian, de Animal. lib. xvi. cap. 9. 
« + Catalogus Mufei Petropolit. tom. i. par. 1. p. 335. In the above- 
mentioned Xenium [fidis, Meffer{chmidt gives to this animal, befides the 
Mogul name, which he writes ¢z/githa’, the Tangut appellation &/ching, 
and the’ Indian dit/(chara or d/hengli-kit[charad, But when he withes to 
apply todit alfo the'parad of the Bible, the bamar iwafch: of the Arabians, 
the thar-kurab ofthe Perfians, and the solan or kulann of the Tartars, he 
evidently confounds thie onager or wild afs with the d/biggetai,. 
nwny ; J % af, 
