Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 241 
agree with Dr. J. D. Hooker when he asserts that the Kyang 
“ differs widely from the ‘ wild Ass’ of Persia, Sindh, and Belu- 
chistan,”’ although “ undoubtedly the same as the Siberian ani- 
mal.” He adds that “it resembles the Ass more than the Horse, 
from its size, heavy head, small limbs, thin tail, and the stripe 
over the shoulder [!]. The flesh is eaten, and much liked. The 
Kyang-lah mountains are so named from their being a great 
resort of this creature*.” Trebeck’s remarks on the figure of 
the Kyang, as quoted by Cunningham, apply alike to either 
race. The accomplished botanist cited would most assuredly 
not recognize as distinct species two plants from different re- 
gions which differed so very slightly from each other as the 
Ghor-khur and the Kyang differ in the animal kingdom. In- 
deed, so far as I can discover, the difference is only in colouring, 
and this merely a difference of shades of hue and the relative 
extension of them +! 
suffuses the caudal region, which in Major Tytler’s animals is conspicuously 
much whiter: the mesial dark line is very slight, almost evanescent, down 
the tail, in which respect all the Ghor-khurs differ from all the Kyangs 
under examination ; and this stripe is not broader upon the croup than in 
an ordinary Donkey : there are no traces of markings on the limbs. The 
skull is unfortunately abnormal, bemg unsymmetrical and curiously de- 
viating from the straight line—to the left at the occiput, and to the right 
at the muzzle. The nasal bones are more compressed than in the Kyang- 
skull; but this difference does not exist in Major Tytler’s younger Ghor- 
khur-skull, nor certainly in his three living animals, so far as a judgment 
can be formed on careful examination of them. There is an obvious 
deformity in the shape of the lower jaw, the rami of which approximate 
almost to contact underneath for a considerable portion of their length, 
and not quite symmetrically. 
The jabs equine skull in the Calcutta Medical College is catalogued as 
that of a Horse; but it exhibits the true asinine contour, and is nearly as 
large as that of the adult Kyang. I do not think that it is a mule-skull, 
but rather that it belonged to a fine specimen of the large Levantine race 
of domestic Asses, which is occasionally met with in the north-west of 
India, chiefly beyond Delhi. Had it been the skull of a wild animal, it 
would probably have been registered as such; and moreover, as a general 
rule, there is a considerable quantity of dark incrustation on the teeth of 
wild grazing animals, which I think is never very observable on those of 
domestic beasts : in the present instance, this is exhibited by the skull of a 
wild Kyang and that of a wild Ghor-khur under examination, and in no skull 
of domestic Horse or Ass, nor in the dubious Medical College specimen. 
* Himalayan Journal, ii. 172. 
tT Vide a subsequent notice of the Ghor-khur, p. 242, where individuals 
are noticed of a very dark colour! But the Dshiggetai, as described by 
Pallas and Pennant, does not quite satisfactorily agree in colouring with 
the Tibetan Kyang! “Le poil est d’un jaune rembruni, assez clair. 
Le nez et ’intérieur des membres sont d’un jaune roux” (Pallas, Voyage). 
Pennant also, translating from the German, writes: “The colour of the 
upper parts of the body a light yellowish-grey, growing paler towards the 
sides. Buttocks white, as are the inside of the limbs and belly.” This 
colouring really applies better to the Ghor-khur. 
