CHAPTER II. 

 PREJEVALSKY'S HORSE. 



{Eqtius przewalsMi. Poliahof.) 



Much interest has been excited amongst naturalists re- 

 specting the existence of a supposed additional species of 

 horse, which was first brought to notice by, and subse- 

 quently named after, the distinguished Russian traveller 

 Prejevalsky.* His single specimen, which he presented 

 to the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy, St. 

 Petersburg, was not really captured by him, but was 

 given to him by the chief magistrate of the district of 

 Zaisan, it being at that time the only one that had been 

 obtained by the wild camel hunters in the deserts of 

 central Asia. A drawing of this animal was published 

 by Prejevalsky, and is accurately reproduced in the 

 engraving by Mr. Frohawk. The specimen was described 

 at considerable length by the Russian naturalist Poliakof 

 in the " Proceedings of the Russian Geographical 

 Society ^^ for January, 1881. This description was trans- 

 lated by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan, and published in the 

 ^^ Annals and Magazine of Natural History^' for 1881. 

 Poliakof distinguishes the animal from the tarpans or 



* In the above account I have employed the western mode of 

 spelling Prejevalsky's name, retaining the Russian form only when 

 used as the specific appellation, which, in accordance with the rules 

 governing scientific nomenclature, I cannot alter. 



