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UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



hair-cloth, figuring as an eminently respectable if slippery covering 

 for chairs and sofas, has been replaced by cheaper and more 

 attractive materials. 



THE Ass (Equus ASINUS). Many of the purposes served by 

 the horse are discharged with considerable efficiency by his 



Fig. 1173. A Shetland Pony 



humbler cousin, a comparatively late -comer to Western and 

 Central Europe, though domesticated from a very remote period 

 by the Egyptians and other races (fig. 1174). It would be a 

 mistake to base our judgment of the species upon the ill-fed and 



Fig. 1174. Egyptian Sculpture 



too often cruelly treated donkeys seen in this country, for some of 

 the breeds of South Europe and the East are handsome and even 

 graceful. White asses have long been esteemed, as may be illus- 

 trated by an allusion in the Old Testament, " Speak, ye that ride 



