Photographs by G. ¥. A. Peet. 
PRZEVALSKY’S HORSE. 
WILD HORSES, ASSES AND ZEBRAS. 
By C. V. A. PEEL, F.Z.S. 
N England we never get further than the study of the domestic horse, the Wild 
Horses, Asses and Zebras coming in for a very small share of public attention. 
We make no attempt at breeding mules, as is done so extensively and with such great 
profit m France, nor do we make cross-breeding experiments with horses and zebras as 
the Germans and Americans do on a large scale; Professor Cossar Ewart’s Penicuik 
experiments are the only British attempts in the latter direction. 
Przevalsky’s Horse, for specimens of which the sum of not less than £800 a pair 
was given recently m England, has been regarded as a domesticated animal run wild. 
Mr. Carl Hagenbeck, who obtaimed a large herd of these animals in Mongolia, does 
not believe this, from the circumstance that the Mongols who caught them state that the 
animals have been wild for hundreds of years; but this does not by any means prove the 
case. This large herd, specimens of which have now found their way all over Hurope 
and to the American Zoological Gardens, was captured in three different districts south 
of the Mongolian town of Kobdo, near the Altai district. The horses travelled twenty 
days to Kobdo, and ninety-five days from Kobdo to the Siberian railway, and from 
thence to all parts of Europe and America. The foals are caught with slings on long 
sticks by the Mongols, a number of whom gallop down upon a large herd at a given 
signal. When caught they are fed by Mongol mares, which act 
as their foster-mothers. These curious yellow-coloured horses 
are capable of endurimg extra- ordinary hardships. They can 
live without food and water for a much longer period than any 
of our domesticated horses or ponies, and if properly interbred 
with hardy Shetlands or New Forest animals -an extremely 
valuable animal should be the result. But, so far, nobody in 
England has taken the trouble to utilise these valuable horses. 
Przevalsky’s horse differs from the domesticated horse in the 
mane being erect and without a forelock on the forehead, and 
in the hairs on the tail not extending so high up. ‘The 
yellow colour of the body becomes darker on the back; 
but there is no distinct stripe. The belly is nearly white. It 
has not yet been definitely pnoto. oy c. y. 4. Pee. decided if this animal is a 
distinct variety from the Tarpan HpaD oF soMaLI witD ass. or not. Tarpans are also 
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