WILD TARPAN AND ITS RELATIONS 87 



the half-bred Russian animals. Bars frequently 

 occur on the limbs of both types, and traces of 

 a shoulder-stripe may be detected in some in- 

 dividuals. 



If this animal was really a half-bred tarpan, it is 

 important to notice that the name Asinus equuleus 

 antedates the under-mentioned Equus przevalskii. 



In spite of Colonel Hamilton Smith's clear 

 assertion that the true wild tarpan was a native of 

 the borders of the Gobi Desert and the adjacent dis- 

 tricts, naturalists persisted in applying that name to 

 the Russian half-breeds, and most of them more or 

 less completely ignored the evidence of the exist- 

 ence of truly wild horses at the present day. There 

 matters remained till the year 1881, when Mr. J. S. 

 Poliakow ^ described the skin and skull of a reputed 

 wild horse obtained a short time previously by the 

 well-known Russian explorer Colonel N. M. Prze- 

 walski, to whom it had been presented by an 

 official at Zaisan, and in whose honour it was 

 named Equus przevalskii. Only a single specimen 

 was obtained, and this was described as being 

 intermediate in characters between the horse on 

 the one hand and the kiang and onager on the 

 other, having chestnuts on all four limbs as in the 

 former, but only the lower half of the tail clothed 



^ Proc. Imp. Russian Geographical Society .^ 1881, pp. 1-20; the 

 paper is translated into English in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.., ser. 5, 

 vol. viii. pp. 16, 26, 1 88 1. 



