ORDER PERISSODACTYLA I ODD-TOED UNGULATES 371 



car which more and more is replacing the Old Testament Camel- 

 Caravan." (Antonius, 1938, p. 559) . 



In a later paper (1939) Antonius makes out a strong case for the 

 domestication of the Syrian Wild Ass by the Sumerians in the third 

 millennium B. C. 



Shooting of gazelles and other game from motor cars in now said 

 to go on throughout the Syrian and Arabian Deserts (J. C. Phillips, 

 in litt., June, 1938). Perhaps this modern "sport" was instituted 

 before the last Syrian Wild Asses had been killed, and it may have 

 been the final factor in their disappearance. 



The Onager of Anatolia 



ASINUS HBMIONUS SUbsp. 



Of this animal there evidently remains nothing but a tradition. 

 It was presumably a subspecies of Asinus hemionus; but whether it 

 was the North Persian onager, the Syrian hemippus, or some unde- 

 scribed form, we shall probably never know. It must have inhabited 

 the rolling downs that Carruthers describes (1915, p. 10) as the 

 habitat of the Anatolian Wild Sheep (Ovis ophion anatolica). 



Pliny (Hist. Nat., VIII, 44) reported "Onagers" in ancient Phrygia 

 and Lycaonia, corresponding more or less to the modern Anatolia. 



"In early days the wild ass was well known in Paphlagonia 

 [a country on the south of the Black Sea] , for Homer, when speaking 

 of the Eneti who came from thence to aid Priam and the Trojans, 

 describes their land as 'the home of wild mules.' There can be little 

 doubt that the wild mule of Paphlagonia was some form of Equus 

 hemionus, probably the same variety as that called 'mule' (he- 

 mionus) in Aristotle's time." (Ridgeway, 1905, pp. 50-51.) 



"The Onager of Anatolia, so well known to Pliny and other an- 

 cient authors, was exterminated before modern times" (Antonius, 

 1938, p. 559). 



Family TAPIRIDAE: Tapirs 



This family is represented by two genera (Tapirus and Tapirella) 

 in Central and South America and by one genus (Acrocodia) in 

 southeastern Asia and Sumatra. Of the seven New World forms, 

 ranging from Mexico to Argentina, one, Tapirus roulinii, is dealt 

 with in Dr. Allen's volume. An account of the single Old World 

 species follows here. 



