346 



EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



A. a. dianae Dollman (1935), from south of Tokar near the 

 Eritrean boundary, is so weakly differentiated from ajricanus as to 

 seem scarcely worthy of recognition ; it may represent a slight inter- 

 gradation toward somaliensis. 



"The Nubian wild ass ... inhabits , . . Sennar and Nubia, its 

 range formerly extending as far as the fifth cataract of the Nile 



FIG. 37. Nubian Wild Ass (Asinus asinus ajricanus) 



.... Year by year the range of this race appears to become more 

 restricted; and unless protective measures be taken, there is danger 

 that it may be exterminated." (Lydekker, 1908, p. 66.) 



Heuglin (1861, p. 19) reports Wild Asses as occurring from Suakin 

 to the Nile at Berber, in all northeastern Sennaar, and in the plains 

 of the Barka River. He says he met with them commonly about 

 the ruins of Wadi Safra, then on the Atbara, and along the route 

 from Taka toward Suakin ; and during the rainy season they appear 

 as far north as the Desert of Korosko. (Korosko is on the Egyptian 

 part of the Nile, at about lat. 22 30' N.; but Flower remarks (1932, 

 p. 432) : "There appear to be no certain records of genuine wild 

 asses having occurred in Egypt during the nineteenth century.") 



