234 Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 
mal; whereas he describes his H. onager only at second-hand, 
having never seen a specimen. Had he personally inspected 
the latter, it is exceedingly doubtful if he would have recognized 
the two as distinct species, or have considered the western ani- 
mal to be the real Onager or aboriginal wild Ass. In his account: 
of the Dshiggitai he remarks :—“ On ne doit pas le confondre 
avec Pane des steppes nommé Koulan par les Kirguis occiden- 
taux; les détails que je me suis procurés sur ce dernier m’ont 
convaincu quwil étoit Ane sauvage, ’Onagre des anciens. Le 
Koulan se tient par troupeau dans les landes montagneuses de la 
Tatarie occidentale, comme le Dshiggitai dans les déserts de la 
Mongolie*.”” Curiously enough, we at present know the Dshig- 
gitai or Kyang more as a mountain animal, in the elevated wilds 
of Tibet, and the Koulan or Ghor-khur more as an inhabitant 
of the sandy desert. 
The late Professor H. Walker referred the Tibetan Kyang to 
Equus hemionus of Pallas; and the Ghor-khur of this country 
is even more satisfactorily referable to EH. onager of Pallas, 
figured by Gmelin; but Professor Walker committed the extra- 
ordinary mistake of figuring and describing an Indian Ghor- 
khur for a Kyangt, so that the alleged distinctions which he 
has pointed out are valueless. However this mistake originated, 
there is no doubt whatever of the fact. The animal was pro- 
cured and sent down to Calcutta by the late Mr. Thomason, 
Governor of the N. W. Provinces, who was just in the position 
to obtain a Ghor-khur from the western deserts, but scarcely a 
Tibetan Kyang. No doubt it was sold to him as a Puhéria or 
“ mountain” Ghor-khur ; for this epithet is continually appled 
by the natives of India to any creature foreign to their own 
province, as the experience of readers who have been in the 
habit of purchasing animals in this country will readily testify. 
By what route it reached Mr. Thomason we are uninformed, as 
also how it came to be accompanied by a Himalayan pony, from 
which it was inseparable; but having compared Dr. Walker’s 
figure and description with stuffed specimens of undoubted 
Kyangs, and with three living undoubted Ghor-khurs now in 
Calcutta, the conclusion here arrived at is irresistible. 
* Voyages de Pallas, iv. p. 305 (French edition, 1793), In p. 309 I 
observe a statement which is worthy of especial notice, as being made b 
Professor Pallas. The existence of the pouch of the Great Bustard (Otis 
tarda) is denied by Professor Owen, though asserted by the Hon. Walter 
Elliot to be a characteristic of the Great Bustard of India (Hupodotis 
Edwardsii). Of the former, however, Pallas thus writes: ‘‘ Cet animal a 
un petit trou sous la langue, qui sert d’ouverture 4 une bourse aqueuse, 
qui est de la grosseur d’un ceuf d’oie, et qui pése souvent plus de trente 
livres. On ne connoit point ici la Petite Outarde.” 
+ Journ. Asiat. Soc. xvii. pt. 2. p. 1, pl. 1. 
