436 THE HORSE. 



tory, inhabiting the open country rather than woody coverts. 

 They abounded in a former condition of the world, their 

 fossil remains existing in numerous mineral deposites. Va- 

 rious species are yet found living in the state of nature, or 

 reduced to servitude. These species have usually been re- 

 garded by naturalists, following the illustrious Linnaeus, as 

 constituting a single genus, Equus ; although some prefer 

 dividing them into two distinct genera, namely, AsiNUS, of 

 which the Ass is typical, and EQUUS, represented by the 

 Common Horse. But these genera pass the one into the 

 other, so that they can only be separated by conventional 

 characters ; and we shall equally avoid confusion by regard- 

 ing them as forming a single genus, of which the species 

 may be considered as approaching more or less to the type 

 which we term Asinine, or more or less to that which is pre- 

 sented in the Horse. In this, as in all parts of the animal 

 kingdom, we find a progression, as it were, from species to 

 species ; so that it may be said the living Equidse present 

 gradations in form and attributes, from the humbler Ass, 

 with his homely exterior, his rudimental mane, and his harsh 

 and grating voice, to the beautiful creature, in which the form 

 and qualities of his tribe are most highly developed. 



The WILD Ass, Ovaygog of the Greeks, Onager of the Ro- 

 mans, inhabits the regions of steril wilderness which stretch 

 from the deserts of Syria eastwards between the northern 

 shores of the Persian Gulf and the great saline Lake of Aral, 

 extending his range eastward into the boundless regions of 

 the Tartars, and southward to the deserts beyond the Indus. 

 He is found congregated in troops, sometimes in great num- 

 bers together. He trusts for safety to the exquisite senses 

 with which he is endowed, and shuns the fatal neighbour- 

 hood of man. In this his natural state of freedom, he shews 

 himself to be endowed with characters and instincts which fit 

 him for his condition. He prefers the bitter and saline plants 

 of the desert to the herbage of the richer plains. He con- 

 tents himself with the water of brackish pools and saline 



