PERISSODACTYLA 337 



culture is specializing in that subject. The number of volumes con- 

 taining references to the horse "are countless." Under domestication, 

 many breeds of horses have been developed, in addition to the varie- 

 ties of wild horses from which the domesticated animals have been 

 derived. 11 The mule is hybrid. 



Donkeys, smaller than our hybrid mules, largely supplant horses in 

 some oriental and tropical countries. In the absence of better means of 

 transportation, they are very useful animals, carrying from 100 to 200 

 pounds each and travelling from 10 to 20 miles per day. It is esti- 

 mated that there are 10,000,000 of them in the tropics and orient. 12 



Wild asses of several species are found in small herds in various 

 parts of Africa and Asia. "Hunting the wild ass has been a favorite 

 pastime of the Persians for some thousands of years. The flesh in 

 olden days was esteemed a regal dish. . . . Like the Persians the Arabs 

 delight in asses' flesh." 13 "Somalis will not touch their flesh." 14 They 

 are wary, not easily approached and swift on foot. 



The zebras are found in Africa. They are often kept in captivity 

 and ridden and driven, but have not been really domesticated. 15 They 

 are especially valuable as riding and driving animals "in parts of 

 equatorial Africa infested by the tsetse fly, to which they are im- 

 mune," 16 as these flies make it impracticable to use horses. "The older 

 males are generally covered with scars, showing them to be very pugna- 

 cious." 17 When 70 wild zebras were coralled, "the stallions fought to 

 the death with teeth and hoofs during the first night, and no less than 

 twenty were killed outright or died of their wounds," according to 

 Roosevelt, who shot zebras as "food for the porters, who like their 

 rather rank flesh." "Recently in British East Africa the increase of 

 the zebras, and the harm they did to the crops of the settlers, rendered 

 it necessary to remove a large measure of the protection formerly ac- 

 corded to them, and in some cases actually to encourage their slaugh- 

 ter." When stampeded by their chief foes, the lions, "their mad, heed- 



11 Carter, The story of the horse : The development of man's companion in war 

 camp, on farm, in the marts of trade, and in the field of sport, Natl. Geog. Mag., 

 XLIV, 456-566, 1923. Lydekker, The horse and its relatives, New York, 1912. Rommel, 

 The preservation of our native types of horses, U. S. Bureau Animal Industry Cir- 

 cular No. 137, 1908. Bell, Breeds of draft horses, Farmers' Bull., No. 619, 1914. 

 Reese, Breeds of light horses, Farmers' Bull, No. 952, 1921. 



12 Austin, Natl. Geog. Mag., xvin, 688, 694, 1907. 

 ^Jennison, Natural history: animals, pp. 217-218, 1927. 



14 Drake-Brockman, The mammals of Somaliland, p. 104, 1910. 



16 Forest and Stream, LVII, 24, 1901. 



19 Jennison, Natural history: animals, p. 219, 1927. 



17 Drake-Brockman, The mammals of Somaliland, p. 105, 1910. 



