290 THE GEOGRAPHY OF MAMMALS 



progenitor of our domestic Horse is extinct, but it was in 

 all probability of Paleearctic origin. 



The two Asses of Asia are the Kiang of High Tibet 

 (Equus kiang), which is a larger animal clad with a thick 

 coat of fur in winter, and the smaller, more sandy-coloured 

 and thin-coated Onager (Equus onager), which occurs in 

 many parts of the deserts of Western Asia and intrudes 

 into the Oriental Region in Cutch. Passing on to Africa we 

 find two members of the Asinine section still wild in the 

 North-eastern part of that continent. These are Equus 

 t/enio-pus of the deserts of Nubia and E. somalicus of 

 Somaliland. The former of these was probably the origin of 

 our domestic Ass (Equus asinus). Going farther south- 

 wards into Africa we meet with four distinct species of the 

 beautifully striped Asses commonly called Zebras, viz. (1) 

 the Quagga (E. quagga) of the Cape Colony, now nearly, if 

 not quite, extinct ; (2) the Mountain Zebra (E. zebra) also 

 confined to Africa south of the Zambesi, and now becom- 

 ing extremely rare; (3) Burchell's Zebra (E. burchelli) dis- 

 tributed under slightly varying characters from the 

 Transvaal to British East Africa along the eastern portion 

 of the continent ; and (4) Grevy's Zebra (E. grevii) of 

 southern Abyssinia and Somaliland. 



The Horses (Equidm) of the present epoch may, there- 

 fore, be regarded as characteristic of the Palsearctic and 

 Ethiopian Regions. 



Section VII. — Distribution of Bovine Mammals 



At the head of the great Arctiodactyle section of the 

 Ungulates, which we now enter upon, we meet with the 



