18G2.] A Further Note on Wild Asses. 363 



A Further Note on Wild Asses, and alleged Wild Horses. 

 — By E. Blyth. 



1. The Wild Ass of the African Zahdra. 



At the time that my paper ' On the Different Animals known as 

 Wild Asses,' (Vol. XXVIII. 229,) was submitted to the public, I had 

 seen no detailed description of an undoubted African wild Ass, though 

 (for reasons assigned) I claimed it as the veritable Asinus onager, 

 as distinguished from sundry kindred specific races that had been a 

 good deal confounded. This animal has, of late, been received both 

 in the Paris Jardin des Planfes, and in the London Zoological Gardens ; 

 though, still, no paiticular notice of it would appear to have been yet 

 published, shewing its distinctive characters, upon comparison, with 

 the hemippus, hemionus, &c. ; nor have we been made acquainted 

 with those that are alleged to justify the discrimination of the Kyang 

 from the Ghor-khur. In a very interesting work* that I have lately 

 seen, however, I find a description of the wild Ass of the African Zahara, 

 which, I think, worthy of citing, and thus bringing more prominently 

 to notice ; and, especially, as it indicates the existence of at least a 

 second African species, as the Hamar or Ahmar of Sudan ; which 

 latter is, doubtless, that which Dr. Barth considered to be identical in 

 species with Mr. R. Schlagintweit's Indian Ghor-khur. I may further 

 notice, that, in K raff's Travels, &c, in E. Africa (p. 277), " wild Asses" 

 are mentioned as being " plentiful in Kayo" (about 5° N. lat.) 



Mr. Tristram writes, that, while his companion "set off with his 

 sketch-book, I returned to see a very fine Ass which had been brought, 

 for inspection, and was valued at thirty dollars. Having heard that 

 wild Asses were to be occasionally found in the Souf'a desert, on the 

 route to Ghadames, I had made every enquiry after one; fully be- 

 lieving that I should see the Koomrah (Fguus hippagrus, Jardinejf 

 mentioned by Dr. Shaw, and known to inhabit some of the sparsely 

 wooded hills of the Fezzan country. 



" My surprise, therefore, was great on seeing a veritable ' Onager' 

 or wild Ass, of what exact species I cannot state. He certainly 

 approached, very near, the Asinus onaueii of A?ia [meaning the 

 Ghor-khur, or E. asinus onager of Pallas and the younger GmelinJ], 



* The Great Sahara: Wanderings South of tho Atlas mountains. By EI. B. 

 Tristram, M. A., F, Z. S., &c. (1860), p. 318. 



t Potlas C. Hamilton Smith, in Jardine's Nat. Libr. — E. B. 

 % Annus indicus, Sclater. 



3 B 



