220 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



the fifth cataract of the Nile, where wild asses are 

 now unknown. 



The African wild asses of the present day, which 

 stand about twelve hands at the shoulder, are 

 divided into races according to their markings. The 

 Nubian race {E. asinus africamts, pi. xx. fig. 2), 

 which inhabits the country on both sides of the 

 Atbara river, in the Eastern Sudan, to the south of 

 Nubia proper, has a distinct shoulder-stripe, but no 

 dark markings on the limbs, with the exception of 

 a patch on the fetlocks. On the other hand, the 

 Somali race {E. a. somaliensis) has more or less 

 completely lost the dorsal and shoulder stripes, but 

 has the legs fully barred. There appears to be 

 also a third type, E. a. ta:jiiopus, in which dorsal 

 and shoulder stripes are combined with full bar- 

 ring of the legs, but whether it has a habitat of its 

 own, and is thus entitled to rank as a definite local 

 race, has not yet been ascertained. 



In general character wild asses resemble the 

 less altered domesticated breeds, although differing 

 by their more slender limbs and greatly superior 

 speed. Both have the same loud, unmelodious bray, 

 which is uttered by both sexes, and is said to be 

 nearly paralleled by the cry of Grdvy's zebra. Both 

 display the same aversion to enter water ; and the 

 domesticated breeds have doubtless inherited their 

 capacity for existing on the poorest and driest fodder 

 from their wild ancestor, whose subsistence consists 



