1862.] A Further Note on Wild Asses. 365 



Donkey being broader, much wider apart, and black. None of the 

 kindred races is stated, ever, to be of a slaty hue ; though it now 

 appears that both Qhor-Jchur and Kyang are subject to variation of 

 colour; and, in India, the puny domestic Asses of the country exhibit 

 precisely the same range of colouring as the Camel. A pied Ass is 

 what I have never heard of. Here, the reported ' wild Ass' of the 

 N. E. Shan States, noticed in p. 169 antea, may again be referred to.* 



2. The alleged Wild Horses of Mongolia. 



In the late Mr. T. Witlam Atkinson's ' Travels in the Regions of the 

 Upper and Lower Amoor,' &c. (2nd edit., 1861), the Appendix consists of 

 a series of highly interesting lists of the mammalia, birds, and ordinary 

 plants, respectively of the valley of the Amoor (divided into Upper, 

 Middle, and Lower), of the Kirghiz steppe, Kara-taw, Ala-taw, and 

 Tarbagatai, and of the trans-Baikal and Siberia. f Equtjs hemionus 

 is mentioned, as an inhabitant only of the upper Amoor territory ; and 

 Equtjs caballus sylvestris, only in the grand last-mentioned region .- 

 but the description (in p. 325) most assuredly denotes a feral as 

 distinguished from an aboriginally wild race of Horse, or rather of 

 Pony, analogous to that of true wild Ass in Africa. With the wild 

 Asini (of different specific races), some variation of shade of colour un- 

 doubtedly does occur, as before remarked ; but is exceptional. No 

 aboriginally wild mammal is known that varies ordinarily so much in 

 hue, as would seem to be implied by Mr. Atkinson's description of 

 the alleged wild Horses of Mongolia. 



" This animal is not like the wild [or rather feral ] Horse of 

 South America, which undoubtedly sprung from those taken into the 

 country by the Spaniards. He is of a distinct race from the Asiatic 

 Horse [which, of among so very many Asiatic races ? At all events, he, 

 too, is Asiatic ;] very small (not so large as an Ass), beautiful in form, 

 having a small head and short ears, and varying in colour from black, 

 bay, grey, and white, the latter being the most rare. He is called ' Muss' 

 by the Kirghis. His sense of smell is very acute, which renders him 

 most difficult to approach, and few Horses can run him down." The 

 author incidentally mentions that these animals are found, in great 

 herds (about May), near the foot of the mountains beyond the river 



* I have recently observed several domestic Asses, of a very dark colour, but 

 having no trace of the cross. 



+ From Dr. Leopold von Schrenk. Tide Natural History Revieio Jan 

 1861, p. 13. 



3 b 2 



