ORDER PERISSODACTYLA : ODD-TOED UNGULATES 327 



hood. We saw no direct evidence of either. The wild ass is common 

 and is often, with characteristic Chinese lack of accuracy, referred 

 to as Yeh Ma ('wild horse') , which may explain the name of Yeh-ma 

 Ching." 



Reymond, the zoologist of the expedition mentioned by Teichman, 

 records (1932, pp. 807-809) a Wild Horse seen in May, 1931, and a 

 carcass recently devoured by Wolves near the northern border of In- 

 ner Mongolia at longitude 105 30' E., latitude "40" [ =42] N. The 

 skull of the latter was identified by Professor E. Bourdelle of the 

 Paris Museum. Reymond also heard that a favorite haunt of Wild 

 Horses was the plateau of Pei Chan, occupying the extreme western 

 triangle of Inner Mongolia. Other members of the Haardt-Audouin- 

 Dubreuil Expedition (as it is here called) saw in 1931 two solitary 

 animals in this general region: one in June, 20 km. west of Hou 

 Hung Chuan (long. 96 E., lat. "40" [ = 42] N.), and one in 

 December near Hsin Hsin Chia on the Kansu-Sinkiang frontier. 

 The first of Reymond 's records is by far the easternmost one to date. 



"Przewalski's wild horse is found in small herds in Chinese Tur- 

 kestan (Sinkiang) and Western Mongolia. It does not appear to be 

 at all numerous, and should be protected if possible, if only because 

 it is the sole surviving true wild horse in the world to-day. It is too 

 small to be of any economic value, the so-called Mongol pony used 

 by the Mongols and other Central Asian people easily supplanting 

 it. The latter is probably a cross between Przewalski's horse and 

 various domestic breeds, and is sufficiently hardy to live in the great 

 wastes of Central Asia in a feral state." (Sowerby, 1937, p. 250.) 



Antonius writes (1938, pp. 558-559) : 



The statements of the brothers Grum-Grshimajlo and the expeditions of 

 Falz-Fein and Hagenbeck for obtaining living specimens make it possible 

 to give the geographic distribution about 1900. There was only one district on 

 the Northern ranges of the Ektag Altai: the neighbourhood of the Zedsig- 

 Nor, called also Zagan-Nor, and three or four in the deserts on the southern 

 ranges: the steppes on the upper Urungu, the Ebi-mountain, the Gashium- 

 desert. If my Russian information is correct and I have, alas! no doubt 

 that it is, the Przevalski horse has been extirpated since the great war and 

 the Russian revolution, the old fork-muskets of the Mongolian hunters 

 having been replaced by modern fire-arms of great power. Therefore it is 

 probable that the descendants of the Falz-Fein and Hagenbeck-imports living 

 in Ascania Nova, Woburn Abbey, and in a few Zoos in Europe, America, and 

 Australia, are the last survivors of the Przevalski-horse, and of the true wild 

 horse in general. 



There would appear to be considerable likelihood that Przewalski's 

 Horse, if not exterminated outright, has proceeded far along the road 

 to extinction through dilution with the ponies of the Mongols. In 

 Salensky (1902, p. 21) we find a report of domestic mares mating 

 with wild stallions. In remarking on the variations in color exhibited 



