i8o THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



animals, as well as hares and marmots, in prime 

 condition./ 



' Unlike the African wild ass, which displays 

 a holy horror of water, the kiang is very partial 

 to that element, and never lives far away from 

 some lake, river, or stream, into which, when 

 occasion requires, it plunges without hesitation 

 to take a longer or shorter swim, despite the icy 

 coldness of Tibetan rivers. 



In Mongolia the kiang is replaced by its cousin 

 the chigetai (or dziggetai, as the name is spelt in 

 German fashion), E. hemionus, which is a rather 

 smaller and more uniformly coloured animal, of 

 lighter make, and more rounded hoofs. The dif- 

 ference in general appearance is due in the first 

 place to the less rufous tint of the darker areas 

 in the summer coat, and secondly to the fact that 

 this shades off almost imperceptibly into the 

 dirty white of the under surface of the body and 

 the paler fawn of the throat and limbs. Having 

 the same narrow dorsal stripe and dark tips to 

 the ears as the kiang, the chigetai lacks the dark 

 patch at the base of the ears distinctive of the 

 latter. Information is still required with regard 

 to the extent of the range of the chigetai ; but 

 the animal is generally believed to be identical with 

 the kulan of the Kirghiz Tatars. 



Nearly allied to the chigetai is the species 

 known in Persia as the ghor-khar, i.e. horse-ass, 



