of Horse from Central Asia. 25 
Of all wild asses, only in two specimens, one an old kulan 
and the second an evidently old djiggetai, are the hoofs of the 
fore feet as wide as or wider than in Hquus Przewalskit ; and 
these may be accounted for by the fact that, in the case of one 
(the djiggetai) at all events, the hoofs were broken. In all other 
specimens (kiangs, kulan, and djiggetai) the hoofs are narrower, 
and in the case of the kiang longer, than in our specimen (a 
young one). 
Thus in Central Asia, besides the kiang (distinguished by 
the colour of its hair and long narrow hoofs, forming a sepa- 
rate species), besides the kulan and djiggetai (if not distinct 
species, at allevents geographical varieties), there exists another 
representative of the solid-hoofed family—a whole mass of 
evidence distinguishing it from the wild asses we have men- 
tioned, and at the same time characterizing the domestic 
horse. Supposing the upper part of the tail of our new 
species were more hairy, we should see a small domestic horse 
of dun colour and low stature; for its comparatively large 
head would not be striking or extraordinary compared with 
varieties of domesticated breeds often seen. And if it were 
possible to prove that culture influenced the growth of the tail, 
that this became more hairy and the mane longer under altered 
conditions of life, I would affirm that Equus Przewalskit was 
indeed the animal whose ancestors were reclaimed by man in 
the stone period, the so-called domestic horse of our day. 
For the present, however, this cannot be asserted, because 
other species having affinity with it, belonging either to geo- 
graphical varieties or distinct kinds, indigenous in other 
countries under different physico-geographical and climatic 
conditions, might even more closely resemble the domestic 
horse in colour and size, although differmg from it in hair, 
and might in this state have become subject to man. 
That animals like Hguus Przewalskit may present different 
forms and geographical varieties is to be assumed, judging 
from the instance afforded by the wild ass. Contrary to 
Dr. Georgi’s views (‘‘ Etudes zoologiques sur les Hémiones et 
quelques autres espéces chevalines,” in Ann. Sci. nat., Zoologie, 
5¢ série, xii. 1869, pp. 5-48), including in one species all 
kinds of the wild ass throughout the vast continent of Asia, 
from Southern Dauria, across the Gobi, to the Aralo-Caspian 
plains on the one side, and the highlands of Tibet and the 
Himalayas to Persia and Syria on the other, I am convinced 
that many distinct species exist, and a large number of more or 
less constant geographical varieties. The kiang, for instance, 
I consider an independent species ; the djiggetai and kulan from 
the Aralo-Caspian plains differ partly in colour and partly in 
