THE ONAGER. 30? 



than a mastiff, be of the same species, the fact would 

 prove another instance of the uncertainty we are 

 thrown into by naturalists asssuming that approxi- 

 mate resemblances are sufficient to warrant the con- 

 clusion of a community of species : travellers and 

 sportsmen, amid the many other causes of indif- 

 ference, are thereby induced to regard the question 

 as settled, neglect detailed descriptions, and continue 

 the duration of ignorance. 



THE ONAGER, KOULAN, OR WILD ASS. 



Asinus onager, Nobis. 



PLATE XVIII. 



THE concluding remark in the former paragraph is 

 again verified in the accounts of the Onager and 

 Hemionus, both of which are confounded by modern 

 writers, and none of the late travellers who noticed 

 wild Equida3, have given more than such slight re- 

 ferences, that whether they indicate species of the 

 horse or of the asinine group, whether the Koulan 

 is the Ghoor Khur, the Asinus silvestris^ the Ha- 

 mar, or the Djiggetai, remains absolutely uncertain. 

 Mr. Pennant describes from Pallas an animal under 

 the name of Dshikketai, wild mule, and Equus he- 

 mionus, and gives the figure of the Petersburgh 

 Transactions, xix. 394, tab. 7, with a cross bar on 

 the shoulder, whicli we consider was drawn from the 

 Koulan. Shaw takes no notice of the Koulan ; yet 



