r 6 2 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



catus. The alleged existence in the Ghobi Desert of 

 a special kind of wild dromedaries (supposed to be 

 the Camelus priinogenitus) lacks confirmation; but there 

 seems no doubt that the mountains of Balkh (the ancient 

 Bactria) are the haunts of ownerless camels, that can be 

 captured only by regular circle-hunts, for a month after 

 birth their young ones are already too fleet for the 

 dromedaries of the Bokhara nomads. The " wild asses" 

 of the Old Testament, like the Abu Ghibr of Arabia 

 Petraea, are probably survivors of a starved caravan, or 

 deserters from the train of a defeated army, for in deserts 

 where a horse would hopelessly perish his long-eared 

 relative seems able to shift for himself; and Burckhardt 

 asserts that the wars of Abd-el-Wahab have peopled the 

 Arabian peninsula with herds of wild asses, resembling 

 the shaggy Bulgarian variety. East of El Medina they 

 roam in herds over the stony mountain-ranges, and 

 generally give the city a wide berth, though in clear 

 nights they pay an occasional visit to the pilgrim-camp 

 of Bab-el-Musree to glean the waste provender of the 

 caravans. 



Near the precincts of the Eastern cities such four- 

 legged independents are often merely domestic animals 

 out of employment ; but in sparsely-settled regions it is 

 curious to observe the reappearance of their old race- 

 habits. The Khelp el Khamr (" dog of the wilderness") 

 of Asia Minor hunts in packs, and rivals his wildest rel- 

 atives in the art of making night hideous with the true 



