SOMALI ASS. 41 



and markings, the nose, a wide ring round the eye, as well as the 

 chest and belly, being white, and the legs nearly so, thus con- 

 trasting strongly with the mouse-coloured head and back. The 

 black stripes on the shoulder and down the middle of the back, 

 and a few somewhat irregular dusky rings round the legs, are also 

 clearly defined. 



The second, or Somali, race {Equus asinus somaliensis 

 M. 1015);, ranges from Somalilaud, through Danakil and Gallaland, 

 to the Red Sea. It is distinguished from the Nubian race by 

 its superior size, the pale and more greyish colour, the absence 

 of a shoulder-stripe, the slightly developed and discontinuous 

 dorsal stripe, and the presence of a number of distinct black bars 

 on the legs, and of a brownish patch on the front of each foot 

 above the hoof. The head and ears are also relatively shorter, 

 with less black on the front of the tips, the mane is longer and 

 inclined to be pendent ; and the white round the eye and on the 

 muzzle is less pure and less sharply defined from the fawn, while 

 there is no white on the under side of the lower jaw and the angle 

 of the throat. 



It is represented in the exhibited collection by a mounted male 

 specimen (M. 10) presented by Gen. Sir A. H. Fitzroy Paget 

 in 1893. 



The Domesticated Ass is undoubtedly the direct descendant of 

 one or both of the wild races ; and, unlike the Horse, exhibits 

 very little variation from the ancestral type ; such modifications as 

 do exist being restricted to colour and size. The colour variations 

 consist of a tendency to albinism on the one hand, and melanism 

 on the other ; the extremes being represented respectively by white 

 and by black Asses. As regards size, the extreme modification is 

 represented by the Dwarf Ass of India and Ceylon, which does not 

 stand more than about two feet at the shoulder. 



In Egypt the Ass was known in a domesticated state long 

 previous to the Horse ; and a skull from an Egyptian tomb 

 (N. H. 24), presented in 1900 by Professor Flinders-Petrie, is 

 exhibited in the large Horse case in the north hall. The only 

 other specimens illustrating this species are two skulls (N.H. 26, 

 27) male and female, from Aden, presented by the Royal Society 

 in 1899. 



E 



