"] 



THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 



53 



dorus, speaks of a region south of Nabataea well wooded and 

 well watered, abounding with all kinds of cattle, wild asses 

 (hemionoi), wild camels, deer, and gazelles ; lions, leopards and 

 wolves were also common. As there were thus both wild asses 

 and wild camels in Arabia down to the Christian era, there can 

 be little doubt that the domestic asses and camels of the Arab 

 tribes were derived from the wild species of that region. 



Fig. 27. The Somali Wild Ass. 



Mr Lydekker^ has pointed out that "if the chigetai and the 

 kiang are regarded as races of one species, there would seem 

 considerable reason for considering the onager and the ghor- 

 khar as sub-species of a second ; for the two latter certainly 

 differ from the two former much more than do the members 

 of the two groups from one another. In their tendency to a 



1 " The wild ass of Mongolia," Proc. ZooL Soc. 1904, p. 431. 



