THE KTANG, 



729 



Each troop is under the command of a leader, who sways his subjects with unlimited 

 authority, and takes upon himself to make all needful arrangements for their welfare. 



The honor of success is not the only motive which urges the hunters to pursue the 

 Dziggetai, for its flesh is remarkably excellent, and is universally thought to be one of 

 the greatest dainties. The localities inhabited by this animal are Mesopotamia, Persia, 

 the shores of the Indus, and the Punjab. The color of this animal is pale reddish- 

 brown in the summer, fading into a gray-brown in the winter, and marked with a black 

 stripe along the spine, becoming wider upon the middle of the back. 



QUAGQA. A' sinus Quagga. 



ANOTHER species of Wild Ass is the KIANG, or Wild Ass of Thibet, sometimes, but 

 erroneously, called the Wild Horse of Thibet, because its noise resembles the neighing 

 of that animal rather than the braying of the ass. 



The Kiang inhabits the high table-lands of its native country, and is wonderfully 

 fleet and active in traversing level or uneven ground. It is a rather large animal ; a 

 full-sized adult from Chinese Tartary measuring fourteen hands in height at the shoulder. 

 It lives in little troops of eight or ten in number, and is found in districts where the cold 

 is most intense, the thermometer falling below zero in the localities which are most 

 frequented by them. As they pass their lives in such a climate, they are necessarily 

 furnished with warm, woolly coats, which are of different color and thickness according 

 to the time of year. In the summer the fur is short, smooth, and of a light reddish- 

 brown, but in winter the hair becomes long and rather woolly, and fades into a light gray 

 brown. The legs too change the tinting, being straw-colored in summer and whitish in 

 winter. A broad black line is drawn along the back, but there is no transverse band 



