THE ONAGER. 309 



croup; the length from nose to tail exceeds seven 

 feet ; the head is large, the forehead arched, the 

 nose sloping down to the lips and thick ; the ears 

 pointed, nearly ten inches long, very erect, and 

 moveable; the eyes small; the neck slender, fur- 

 nished with an upright mane, and the tail, like that 

 of the domestic animal, is two feet and a half long ; 

 the body is comparatively small in girth, with the 

 ridge of the back sharp, the thighs cat-han«ned, 

 and the limbs fine, with narrow hoofs, hard on the 

 edges, and hollow in the sole ; the mane, line along 

 the spine, cross on the shoulder, and tuft at the end 

 of the tail dusky and dark brown : the general 

 colour of the fur is a silvery grey, passing to white 

 on the belly and limbs ; but the head, neck, shoul- 

 der, flank, and haunches are pale Isabella or flax- 

 colour: there are callosities on the inside of the 

 arms; the cross bar is sometimes double on the 

 shoulder, and commonly is wanting in the females, 

 who are always smaller and more slightly made. 



The species inhabits the dry mountainous parts of 

 Great Tahtary up to the forty-eighth degree of 

 north latitude, but only in summer returning south- 

 ward with the change of season, whole herds being 

 seen in motion as far as the deserts of the Lower 

 Indus, but spreading chiefly in the eastern provinces 

 of Persia,* where their venison is highly prized, and 



* Migration from Tahtary to India and Persia is scarcely 

 possible : there are no passes from Thibet across the Hima- 

 layas; that which the Indus offers, if frequented by th«8e 

 animals, would long since have led the nations around to way- 



