ORDER PERISSODACTYLA I ODD-TOED UNGULATES 369 



of this animal frequently visit the Armenian mountains. It is the 

 Wild Ass of Scripture and of the Ninevite sculptures." 



"The fluctuations of the Beduin troops during the World War in 

 general and of the Wahabi tribes in late years have quite wiped out 

 the limits of both species of Wild Asses (Asinus hemippus and A. 

 onager) reaching Trans-Jordania, and have pushed back these 

 extraordinarily shy, freedom-loving animals into the center of the 

 desert. They now occur so sporadically that many Beduin clans 

 have not seen them at all during late years." (Aharoni, 1930, p. 330; 

 translation.) 



"In earlier days Wild Asses were fairly common in the Syrian 

 Desert, and they entered Trans jordania freely. They have since 

 become rare and are probably on the verge of extinction in the 

 Syrian desert. Two forms occurred there which correspond to the 

 two Wild Asses of the Bible, i. e. the Syrian Wild Ass (Equus hemip- 

 pus) and the Onager (E. onager) ." (Bodenheimer, 1935, p. 116.) 



"That the onager was regularly captured and domesticated in 

 Assyria in ancient times is clearly established by one (Fig. 23) of 

 the bas-reliefs discovered by Sir A. H. Layard at Kouyunjik 

 (Nineveh). The relief, which is one of a series of slabs recording 

 scenes in the life and hunting expeditions of Assur-Bani-Pal (B. C. 

 668-626), represents two of the king's attendants lassoing a wild 

 ass. The other asses are seen running away." (Ridgeway, 1905, 

 p. 48.) 



Xenophon (Anabasis, book 1, ch. 5) mentions seeing large numbers 

 of Wild Asses, in company with Ostriches, in the vicinity of the 

 Euphrates in 401 B. C. 



Porter (1821, pp. 460-461) gives the following brief account of 

 the animal in Mesopotamia: "I was informed by the mehmandar, 

 who had been in the desert, . . . that the wild ass of Irak Arabi 

 [in the lower Tigris-Euphrates Basin] differs in nothing from the 

 one I had just seen [in the Province of Fars, Persia]. He had 

 observed them often, for a short time, in the possession of the Arabs, 

 who told him the creature was perfectly untameable." 



In the 1840's Layard (1850, pp. 265-266) observed a large herd of 

 Wild Asses in the Sinjar region west of Mosul. He adds that those 

 mentioned by Xenophon must have been seen in these very plains. 

 "The Arabs sometimes catch the foals during the spring, and bring 

 them up with milk in their tents. . . . They are of a light fawn 

 color almost pink. The Arabs still eat their flesh." 



"Wild ass ... range over the plain between the Tigris and the 



Euphrates, but do not, as generally stated, extend into the Syrian 



Desert. The only locality which I know of as being a sure place to 



come in contact with these very elusive beasts is the Jebel Sinjar, 



13 



