Zl 
Mr. E. Blyth on the different Animals known as Wild Asses. 243 
Ass of Cutch and the north of Guzrat,” remarked Col. Sykes 
in 1835, “is not found further south in India than Deesa, on 
the banks of the Bunnas river, in lat. about 23° 30/; nor have 
I heard of it to the eastward of the 75° of longitude on the 
southern side of the Himalaya. In Cutch and northern Guzrat 
it frequents the salt deserts and the open plains of the Opur, 
Jaysulmir, and Bikénir.’ Again, Masson, in his ‘ Narrative of 
a Journey to Kalat’ (published in 1843), remarks that “ the 
Ghor-khur, or ‘wild Ass,’ was formerly to be found on the 
Dasht Giran, and in Ghurgh’ina, but has disappeared of late 
years. It is still occasionally seen about Kharan. It also 
ranges the plain of Dalbanding, on the road from Nushké to 
Jalk. South-easterly of Kalat, it is said to be found on th 
Pat of Shikarpir, between Tambi and Rojan.” 2 
To the west of the range of the Ghor-khur lies that of Asinus 
hemippus, or true Hemionus of ancient writers,—the particular 
species apostrophised in the book of Job, and, again, that noticed 
by Xenophon. There is a recent account of it by Dr. A. H. 
Layard, in ‘ Nineveh and its Remains’ (p. 324). Returning 
from the Sinjar, he was riding through the desert to Tel Afer, 
and there he mistook a troop of them for a body of horse, with 
the Bedouin riders concealed! ‘The reader will remember,” 
he adds, “that Xenophon mentions these beautiful animals, 
which he must have seen during his march over these very plains. 
He faithfully describes the country, and the quadrupeds and 
birds that inhabit it, as they are to this day, except that the 
Ostrich is not now to be found so far north*. ‘The country,’ 
Bikanir herd consists at most of 150 individuals, which frequent an oasis 
a little elevated above the surrounding desert, and commanding an exten- 
Sive view around, the animals being exceedingly shy, and making off on 
i ing an object of suspicion, however distant. There is a low ran 
of hills, several miles off, in which is a watercourse, dry during the hot 
season; but at the head of this, about a mile into the interior of the hills, 
there is a perpetual spring, to which the Ghor-khurs resort to drink during 
the night, maintaining the most vigilant caution. Once only in the year, 
when the foals are young, a party of five or six native hunters, mounted on 
uae Sindh mares, chase down as many foals as they can succeed in tiring, 
which lie down when utterly fatigued, and suffer themselves to be bound and 
carried off. In general, they refuse sustenance at first ; and about one-third 
only of those taken are reared, but these command high prices and find a 
y sale with the native princes. The profits are shared by the party, 
who do not attempt a second chase in the same year, lest: they should 
seare the herd from the district, as these men regard the sale of a few 
Ghor-kburs annually as a regular source of subsistence. 
* According to Chesney, Ostriches are still “found in the great Syrian 
Desert, especially in the plain extending from the Haouran towards Jebel 
Shammar and Nedja; some of them are found in the Haouran itself, and 
a few are taken almost every year even within two days’ journey of Da- 
mascus,” &c. (Journal of the Euphrates Expedition, 1. 558.) It is well 
