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362 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



flesh is said in books on Persia to be prized above all other venison ; 

 but Persians have told me that it should only be eaten under absolute 

 necessity, being equally disagreeable to the conscience of a good 

 Mussulman, and to the palate of a gourmand." 



In his journey of 1906, Sven Hedin (1910, vol. 1, pp. 216, 218, 222, 

 228, 243-244, 396-397; vol. 2, p. 65) saw a few Wild Asses and 

 noted tracks or received reports of numerous others on the western 

 and southern borders of the Great Salt Desert ("Kevir") in north- 

 eastern Persia. On the western border "the herdsmen . . . are ac- 

 customed to the presence of wild asses, and take no notice of them." 

 On the southern border a native "had shot many wild asses, and was 

 wont to sell their skins to the shoemakers of Tebbes. When, as now, 

 there was much rain, the chase was not profitable, for the wild asses 

 could find water anywhere; at other times they are dependent on 

 springs, and then is the time for the huntsman to stalk his prey." 

 Farther south, in Kuhistan, the animals were said to be very 

 numerous in the desert between Tebbes and Bahabad, and a local 

 hunter "had killed two hundred wild asses." 



"Most of the remoter deserts of Eastern Persia are roamed over 

 by wild asses. Unfortunately, . . . these animals have always been 

 remorselessly persecuted for the sake of their meat and hides, 

 usually by the ignoble plan of sitting up over water, with the con- 

 sequence that they are now scarce." (Kennion, 1911, p. 119.) 



"His [the Anatolian Onager's] near ally in Iran (Equus hemionus 

 onager Zimm.) , although still rambling over the salt deserts of his 

 country in considerable numbers, is hard pressed by modern guns" 

 (Antonius, 1938, p. 559) . 



The most recent account is by Legendre (1939, pp. 240-241) : 



"Goodwin had succeeded in shooting one, 50 miles from Teheran. 



"At the village of Abbasabad [north of the Great Salt Desert] 

 we received information that there were herds of wild ass to be 

 found in the desert 80 miles away, near a salt spring." At this 

 spring "there were tracks everywhere," but none of the animals could 

 be located. 



Two natives reported "that the wild asses had all migrated to 

 the south two months before .... They assured us, however, 

 that they were to be found in herds of ten to forty around the salt 

 spring, from June until September." 



The locality referred to by Legendre is evidently identified by 

 Goodwin (1940, p. 17) as Siah Parde, whence he records three 

 specimens. 



Afghanistan. Scarcely any information seems to be available 

 concerning the Wild Ass in this country, save that secured by the 



