462 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



Ass of those regions, but he admits that the Koulan is no 

 more than the genuine Ass, abandoned to nature, and ex- 

 empted from all traces of domestication. 



This animal is of the magnitude of a middle-sized horse. 

 The head is heavy, but the ears are not quite so long as 

 those of the Common Ass. The colour is gray or brownish- 

 yellow, with a brown dorsal stripe and one or two bands 

 across the shoulders. It passes the winter in the warm 

 parts of Persia and India, and advances in summer to the 

 North of the Oural, where it finds fresh and abundant pas- 

 tures. These animals live in numerous troops. 



The domestic races of the Ass appear to have been sub- 

 jected to man from time immemorial. Many varieties are 

 produced in this animal by domestication* though fewer 

 than in the Horse, which, being better able to support the 

 vicissitudes of climate and of season, is, consequently, more 

 liable to modification from such causes. The countries 

 most suitable to the Ass, are those of the South. Accord- 

 ingly it is in Persia, Egypt, and Arabia, that the strongest 

 and finest varieties of this species are to be found. Some 

 very different from the small and feeble natives of our cli- 

 mates, almost equal the Horse in magnitude and stature. 

 Spain also possesses some fine races of the Ass, which are 

 also occasionally to be found in the southern provinces of 

 France, but in proportion, as we advance northward, this 

 animal diminishes in size, and becomes more and more 

 difficult of preservation. 



To describe this animal as known to us, would be super- 

 fluous. Its senses are in general excellent, its apprehen- 

 sion is slow, but the perceptions which it is capable of are 

 clear and precise. To this fact, may be attributed the sure- 

 ness of its footsteps, and the general good sense that it ex- 

 hibits. Its timidity causes the caution which we find it to 

 possess, and also the resistance which it sometimes mani- 

 fests, and which we, without any reason, confound with 

 obstinacy. 



