ITS NEAREST EXISTING RELATIONS. 



87 



Linn.), which, is nearly as widely diffused and use- 

 ful to man as the horse, was for long a matter of 

 uncertainty. It was known and used in Egypt long 

 before the horse, and the general belief that it was 



Fig. 11. — African Wild Ass (Equas asinus) and foal. 



From a photograph by Major J. F. Nott of animals living in the Zoological 



Society's Gardens. 



first domesticated in that land has been confirmed 

 by the discovery of a wild ass in Abyssinia and other 

 parts of the districts of north-eastern Africa lying 

 between the Nile and the Red Sea which so closely 



