10 PBEJEVALSKl'S HOBSE. 



these animals may be recognised. The stallion of the wild 

 horse never leads the herd, but is always behind, taking care 

 of the young, which he protects better than do the mares. 

 But however this may be, we were the first Europeans who, for 

 twenty days, made a study of these interesting animals, adding 

 the skins of three handsome stallions and one mare to our 

 collection — an acquisition we may well be proud of, though 

 made at the cost of many hardships and privations. Besides 

 Equus przewalskii, Dzungaria has the tiger, two antelopes 

 {A. saiga and A. gutttorosa), two wild asses (E. hemionus 

 and E, onager), and, among small animals, a hare and a few 

 rodents not yet determined." 



They seem to throw no suspicion on Prejevalsky's horse 

 being a distinct species^ and do not even allude to the 

 possibility of its being a hybrid between the ass and the 

 horse. They obviously paid great attention to their 

 zoological collection^ having obtained a large number 

 of specimens, comprising twenty-nine large mammalia, 

 thirty-nine medium, and forty-two small, and they re- 

 garded the four specimens of Equus przewalskii as amongst 

 their most interesting acquisitions. Of these they secured 

 three skulls and one perfect skeleton. Sir W. Flower 

 tliinks that it is difficult to form a definite opinion as to the 

 validity of this species, or resist the suspicion that it may 

 be a mule. The latter supposition is unlikely, as, if it 

 were true, so many specimens could hardly have been 

 obtained ; moreover, hybrids between two species are 

 rarely produced except through the agency of man. The 

 capture of a female E. przewalskii in foal would settle this 

 disputed question, equine mules being invariably barren. 



