Agr'wtype of Domestic Asses. .025 



Tlie fuithcr question now arises : Is tlure still in existenco 

 a wild i'orin of ass presenting the coloration of the legs and 

 ot the ears seen in our domestic animal ? The evidence on 

 this head that I have been able to collect is meagre enough, 

 but it amounts to something. We have at the present tinio 

 living in the Zoological (Jarilens a female ass belonging to 

 ISir Claud Alexander, which was sold to him as a Nubian 

 wild ass. The body and legs are grey and there are faint 

 stripes on the limbs, with cons|iicuous patches on the fore 

 fetlocks, like those of the example of J'J. a. a/n'cunus de- 

 scribee! and fi^^uifd by Mr. Lyilekker. The base of the ears 

 lias a very large dark patch, wliich extends more to the trout 

 than to the back and runs up in a point so far towards the 

 black area at the tip that the space between them appears as 

 a narrow greyish-yellow band when the ear is seen from the 

 Irunt. Aiiain, pliotogra])hs of two alleged Xubi.in wild asses 

 aj'pear in Prof. Itidgeway's book on the 'Tlioroughbred Horse' 

 (pp. 50, 51). One of these, animals was living in the London 

 Zoological Gardens between lSb6 and 1890 *, as 1 learn 

 from Air. Medland, the photographer ; the other died some 

 years ago in the Gardens in Dublin, as Dr. Scharff tells me. 

 Air. Medland's photograph clearly shows the black j)atch 

 at the base of the left ear and the photograph of the animal 

 in Dublin shows it on the right ear, but in both cases re- 

 flected light prevents an accurate judgment being formed of 

 the extent of the patch. Finally, in the ' Royal Natural 

 History,' ii. p. 511, there is a woodcut, by l^Iiitzen, entitled 

 the Atrican Wild Ass, lepresenting two animals practically 

 itlentlcal with the one now in the London CJardens, except 

 for the exaggerated length of the ears. There can be very 

 little doubt, I think, that this engraving was taken from one 

 or more animals living somewhere in Germany, probably in 

 Berlin. If this drawing, which bears a general stamp of 

 accuracy, be compared with the description of E. a. africanus 

 above cited a>id with the plate of the specimen from Nakheila 

 in Mr. Lydekker's paper, the diiferences between the two 

 forma become apparent at once. 



For want of completer records, the question of the existence 

 at the present time in Nubia or the adjoining parts of Africa 

 of a race of wild asses resembling those figured in the * Royal 

 Natural History' and the one now in the Zoological Gardens 

 must be left open ; bat I feel tolerably sure that such an 

 animal formerly, at all events, existiul, and probably extended 

 much further to the north than the tilth cataract of the Nile, 



• This is probably the same animal a« that figured on p. 82 of Flower's 

 book 'The Horse," \>^\ll. 



