352 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



They go in small herds. The largest I saw consisted of five." (In- 

 verarity, in Bryden, 1899, p. 71.) 



''They are common to the eastward of Berbera, behind Siyaro, in 

 among the sand dunes and rocky hills, and also south of Bulhar in 

 similar localities, especially around the Issitugan Valley. South of 

 the Golis Range they inhabit the low stony hills around Halo, 

 Haloka Yer, and near Segig; they are also found on Negegr Plateau." 

 They are "usually seen in herds of four or five individuals and not 

 uncommonly singly." (Drake-Brockman, 1910, p. 103.) 



Akeley (1914) gives an account of hunting Wild Asses about 30 

 miles from Berbera. One reason for their scarcity is indicated in 

 his statement (p. 117) that "one English 'sportsman' boasted of 

 having killed twenty-eight." 



De Beaux (1928a, p. 6) records seven specimens from Italian 

 Danakil. He also remarks (p. 13) that the present subspecies is sepa- 

 rated from ajricanus by the Ethiopian plateau, which approaches the 

 Red Sea at the Gulf of Zula [Annesley Bay]. 



Thesiger, who traversed Abyssinian and Italian Danakil in 1933, 

 found Wild Asses quite common north and south of the lower 

 Hawash (Neumann, 1935, p. 153) . 



Antonius (1938, p. 561) writes: 



Because many hides from Berbera, as well as from Danakil, although typical 

 in all other points, show a more or less developed shoulder cross, there can 

 be no doubt that neither the existence of it nor its absence is thoroughly 

 typical [of somaliensis}. . . . 



It is, alas! to be feared that the Abyssinian war has its consequences for 

 the African wild asses: warring soldiers, and especially askaris, are never 

 the best protectors of vanishing game! Whether the "Asinus somaliensis" 

 exists also in Southern Abyssinia or not is not positively known. A well- 

 informed Austrian, who had been living in Abyssinia for many years, told me 

 that he had seen wild asses in the Bale country on the upper Juba. I suggest 

 for geographical reasons that the animals are not true wild asses, but either 

 Zebras or domestic donkeys of a feral breed, similar to the beautiful asses 

 of the Turkana people on the western shore of Lake Rudolf, at first seen by 

 von Hoehnel and Count Teleky, and since recorded by modern visitors to that 

 country. 



Lydekker (1916, vol. 5, p. 39) records a specimen from as far 

 south as "Shebeli Valley, Somaliland." 



Atlas Wild Ass; Algerian Wild Ass 



ASINUS ATLANTIOUS (Thomas) 



Equus asinus atlanticus. P. Thomas, Mem. Soc. Ge"ol. France, ser. 3, vol. 3, 

 no. 2, p. 45, 1884. (Recent Quaternary deposits, Oued Seguen, near 

 Constantine, Algeria.) 



SYNONYM: Equus asinus atlanticus Werth (1930). 



FIGS.: Thomas, op. cit., pi. 2, figs. 7, 7a; Werth, 1930, p. 348, fig. 3; Jennison, 

 1937, pi. facing p. 145. 



