OF THE OLD WORLD 



than any of these latter are from each other. The 

 Somali name of this zebra is Fer'o. Captain Swayne 

 found them in that part of Africa in droves of six. He 

 further observed that the young animals were beset 

 with a closer coat of hairs than their parents, and that 

 the black of their skins was dingy and brownish. Like 

 all zebras and this is the greatest source of annoyance 

 to the sportsman, for the animals will mob you and 

 thus warn off other game they are curious and in- 

 quisitive, even impertinent in their attentions. They 

 bray " like an Abyssinian mule," but they are not to be 

 despised from a gastronomic point of view. This latter 

 character did not impress Colonel Grant so favourably, 

 for he found in their flesh a very horsey taste. 



THE WILD Ass 



Of wild asses there are certainly two species, if not 

 more. In Asia we have the onager, and in Africa the 

 parent of our donkey, the Nubian ass, Equus asinus, 

 or, apparently better, E. africanus. In the Asiatic ass 

 there is merely a long dorsal stripe running down the 

 length of the back ; in the African ass, besides this 

 stripe, a cross bar on the shoulders in legend, the 

 marks of the Saviour. These two forms, which are 

 really quite distinct from each other in correspondence 

 to the continents which they people, are subdivisible 

 into other races which may or may not have the value 

 and rank of " species." In Asia we have first of all the 

 hemippe (E. hemippus) of Syria, and the thick-coated 

 kiang (E. hemionus) of Thibet, furred to stand the 

 wintry climate of its mountainous home. In Africa 

 Somaliland nourishes an ass known as the Equus 

 somalicus, with stripes upon the legs, but no stripe upon 

 the shoulder on each side. We have, in fact, in the 

 zebras and donkeys a series of stages between plain 



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