ORDER PERISSODACTYLA : ODD-TOED UNGULATES 357 



seems to constitute the southwestern limit (as far as known at 

 present) of the range of the Mongolian Wild Ass. 



Enemies. Among predatory animals, the Wolf seems to be the 

 only enemy of any importance, and doubtless it has never affected 

 the Wild Asses at all seriously. Apparently it cannot successfully 

 attack any except the young Asses within a few weeks of their 

 birth. Older animals are able to outrun the Wolf on the open plains. 



Increasing use and precision of firearms in the hands of the 

 Asiatics have undoubtedly contributed chiefly to the decline of the 

 AVild Asses. 



Transcaspian Wild Ass; Transcaspian Kulan; Wild Ass of 

 Russian Turkestan. Transkaspischer Kulan (Ger.) 



ASINUS HEMIONUS FiNscHi (Matschie) 



Equus (Asinus) hemionus finschi Matschie, in Futterer, Durch Asien, 

 vol. 3, pt. 5, Zoologie (Nachtrag), p. 24, 1911. ("Nordostlich vom Saisan- 

 nor" (Zaisan Nor, in former Province of Semipalatinsk, Russian Turke- 

 stan).) (Cf. Harper, 1940, p. 198.) 



FIGS.: Radde, Sammlungen Kaukas. Mus., vol. 1, Zoologie, pi. facing p. 60, 

 1899; Brehm's Tierleben (IV), 12, p. 670, tab. Unpaarhufer V, fig. 2, 

 1915; Schwarz, 1929, p. 92, fig. 5. 



This Wild Ass is now very scarce in Russian Turkestan, having 

 evidently disappeared from the greater part of the country. It was 

 long ago exterminated in southern Russia. 



Matschie describes the type (from the vicinity of Zaisan Nor) 

 as reddish salmon, with a slight tinge of gray; the lips are white; 

 the whitish of the under parts extends well up on the flanks; the 

 dark vertebral stripe continues on to the base of the tail. Schwarz 

 adds (1929, p. 91) that the maximum width of the vertebral stripe 

 is 42 mm. Radde and Walter (1889, p. 1059) describe a full-grown 

 male from the Askabad region as lacking a shoulder stripe; its 

 height at the shoulder was 1,110 mm.; tail (including tuft) , 590 mm. 



"It is clear [from Strabo's account] that the wild ass (onager) 

 existed all across southern Russia in the fifth century B. C., for it 

 was hunted both by the Sarmatian tribes who lived on the east side 

 of the Don (Tanais) and by the Scythians who occupied the region 

 to the west of that river. It is even possible that the wild ass dwelt 

 in the Danube valley almost down to the beginning of the historical 

 period. It seems certain that neither Sarmatian nor Scythian ever 

 domesticated the wild ass, a circumstance probably due to the fact 

 that they had a more docile and serviceable animal in the wild 

 horses of the same region." (Ridgeway, 1905, pp. 51-52.) 



"In former days kulan and onagers appear to have ranged much 

 further westward than is the case at the present day. It is stated, 

 for instance, by the Russian naturalist Rytschkov that in the 

 eighteenth century kulan abounded on the eastern side of the Volga, 



