366 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



resident in his dominions'; the official books allege that Bikaner has 

 'a herd of about 100 wild asses/ He assured me the books were 

 wrong; he himself had never seen one, but very occasionally one 

 strayed into his borders from Bhawalpur. They still exist in Kutch, 

 or did until yesterday. These too are in an isolated area where they 

 cannot be replenished from outside." (Edward Thompson, in Lon- 

 don Times, August 19, 1932?) 



"Within recent years, it has become confined to the Rann of 

 Kutch .... The depletion in numbers is attributed to -the fact 

 that it has for long been hunted by certain tribes for food; and it 

 is significant that it now only exists in appreciable numbers in an 

 inaccessible locality like the Rann, where it is rigorously protected 

 by His Highness' Government. The killing ... is illegal throughout 

 His Highness' territory; and such killing as at present takes place is 

 due entirely to hunters from British India and from the States on the 

 Indian side of the Rann, who occasionally make raids upon the 

 animal, either to secure a rare trophy or to kill it for food. This 

 Government contemplates addressing a request to the British author- 

 ities that the killing of the animal should be made an offence else- 

 where, on the analogy of the rules already in force in Kutch. But the 

 wild Asses found within Kutch jurisdiction, and not straying outside 

 it, are perfectly secure." (Dewan's Office, Kutch, in litt., February, 

 1937). 



The present range in India is the eastern parts of the Rann of 

 Cutch, in very reduced numbers. The Wild Ass has been recom- 

 mended by the All-India Conference for the Protection of Wild Life 

 as one of the species which should be specially protected. The testes 

 are believed to possess aphrodisiac properties. (Bombay Natural 

 History Society, in litt., December, 1936) . 



Blanford says (1876, p. 85) : "Wild asses are locally distributed 

 in [Persian] Baluchistan, and I only heard of their being abundant 

 near Bampur. None are said to be found in the deserts north of 

 Jalk and Kalagan [in northwestern Baluchistan], though Ferrier 

 speaks of them as common farther north in Sistan." Detailed 

 reports from Baluchistan of more recent date do not seem to be 

 available. 



Lydekker (1904, p. 589, pi. 17) records a male specimen in the 

 London Zoo, apparently referable to this subspecies, and "stated 

 to have been captured as a foal in the desert near Meshed," north- 

 eastern Persia. The alleged provenance, however, may be regarded 

 as distinctly questionable. Schwarz (1929, p. 91) refers this speci- 

 men to onager, despite the impure white of the lower parts and the 

 lack of a shoulder stripe. 



Schwarz (1929, pp. 85-89, figs. 1-4) describes and figures a 

 specimen in the Berlin Zoological Garden, evidently belonging to 



