The Onager not an Ass. 



175 



covered wagon. The best-bred male baudcts are worth a hundred francs, say £^, for each 

 month of their age. A male ass two years old, 14 hands high, and in other respects perfect, 

 can rarely be purchased for £^00. 



WILD ASSES. 



Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, in his notes on his portraits of animals collected by the thirteenth 

 Earl of Derby, grandfather of the present peer, in that very scarce work, "The Knowsley Menagerie," 

 doubts if the breed of the domestic ass has ever been found in a wild state not being the 

 descendant of so-me donkeys which had escaped from the care of man. The difference is 

 important. The young of domesticated horses, cattle, and pigs, which have escaped and 

 grown wild are easily reclaimed. This has been repeatedly proved in the case of foals 

 and calves in Australia. In New Zealand the produce of tame pigs which have escaped 

 into the bush assume the appearance and acquire the ferocity of the wild boar race ; but 

 Lady Barker relates, in her interesting " Station L ife," that the young of a very savage wild 

 sow which her husband killed became so tame as to be positively troublesome pets. 



But repeated experiments have shown that the offspring of a truly wild race, like deer, 

 buffaloes, aurochs, and swine, relapse to their original state the moment that daily personal 

 care is relaxed. 



The wild asses of Syria and of India are no more asses than the zebra or quagga, and 

 are just as untamable ; if they were not they would afford a fine field for the exertions of 

 an acclimatisation society, as in beauty and in strength they are as superior to the domestic race 

 as a thoroughbred horse is to the wild horses of Australia or Tartary, or as a red deer of 

 the German forest to the fallow deer of English parks. 



In the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens may be seen a Syrian wild ass, or hemione, which 

 has bred with the domestic ass, and produced a mule. The colour is the yellow of an antelope, the 

 ears rather smaller, but in every other respect — head, neck, legs, and tail — very like an ass. 

 Another variet}' is the onager, from India, which, in the delicacy and strength of its limbs, 

 differs from a common donkey so much that it might be called a thoroughbred, for it partakes of 

 the character of a blood-horse. The first idea suggested by a sight of this very handsome 

 animal is, what a fine cross it would make with an English, French, or Spanish ass ; but, on 

 inquiry, it appears that it will no more breed reproductively than an horse and an ass, or a 

 pheasant and a game-fowl. 



This Indian wild ass, or Equiis onager, has excited great interest because it differs essentially 

 from any other specimen in the collection, and more than realises the following description by 

 Captain Nutt, who caught and presented it to the Gardens : — 



" Having heard a good deal about the wild donkeys to be found on the Runn of Kutch, I 

 took the opportunity when lately paying an official visit to the Mallia State — the extreme 

 north-west corner of Kattywar — to try my luck at capturing a specimen. Mentioning the 

 subject to the Mallia chief, I found that he took a lively interest in the matter ; and as he 

 tendered his personal services, as well as those of some thirty Meeanas, whom I knew to be 

 well-mounted and practised riders, I at once closed with his offer, and began to make the 

 requisite bundobust. I was joined by seven enthusiasts from the neighbouring State of Dhrangdra, 

 and six from Mornee ; so, with my own little detachment of six, the entire party, including 

 myself numbered fifty-one. My camp was at a place called Ghantela, bordering on the Runn 

 of Kutch. Piiggecs were sent out to obtain information ; and in about three or four days 

 time they came in with the news that there was a tola of eight — four big ones and four young 



