36G A Further Note on Wild Asses. [No. 4, 



Hi ; and describes the mode of hunting them, which is to chase a 

 herd into a narrow mountain-pass, secured on the other side, so that 

 the poor animals run into a trap, and are there cruelly butchered 

 with battle-axes ; for " the Khirghiz consider their flesh the greatest 

 delicacy the steppe affords." 



1 am disposed to consider that the herds, referred to, have about as 

 much claim to be considered as aboriginally wild, as have the New 

 Forest Ponies in England, — neither less nor more, — or, as the feral 

 cattle of Chillingham Park, with their likewise very suspicious colour- 

 ing ; the latter, too, being artificially maintained by weeding out all 

 calves that deviate in hue. I do not think that the Equtjs caballus 

 has, anywhere, so good a claim to be regarded as aboriginally wild, at the 

 present day, as have the One-humped Camels noticed by Ruppell, as 

 abounding in the long stretch of desert between the valley of the 

 Nile and the Red Sea ; but, it is to be regretted that M. Ruppell does 

 not mention the colouring of these animals, whether, or not, subject 

 to much variation. A large proportion of the domestic Camels of vast 

 tracts of the African continent are white ; and a prevalence of white 

 individuals would be highly suspicious, in the herds which M. Rup- 

 pell considers as feral ; but which may yet be truly as aboriginally 

 wild as are the African wild Asses,- which, also, by the way, were 

 considered as feral by the late Prince of Canino. It must be a rare 

 circumstance, indeed, for a Camel, left to perish by the Arabs and 

 others, to recover ; though, still, Camels may have strayed from 

 domesticity. Should the wild herds not vary much in colour, I see no 

 reason why they might not be regarded as probably aboriginal.* 



* When I noticed what I termed the decimation of the wild herds of Ele- 

 phants in Borneo ( in p. 197 antea,) it should have been remarked, that, if the 

 tuskers only were killed, it would no more affect the multiplication of the race, than 

 does the withdrawal by emasculation of so many males of our common domes- 

 tic animals. Pro tanto, therefore, the decimation argument goes for nothing. 



The Mogul Emperor Baber mentions, incidentally, the occurrence of the Rhino- 

 ceros, the wild Buffalo, and the Lion, in the neghbourhood of Benares ; and 

 wild Elephants in the vicinity of Chunar! When nearly approaching Benares, 

 he states — "At the station, a man said that in an island close on the edge of the 

 <:ainp, lie had seen a Lion and a Rhinoceros. .Next morning we drew a ring 

 round the ground ; we also brought Elephants to be in readiness, but no Lion 

 nor Rhinoceros was roused. On the edge of the circle one wild Buffalo was 

 started***. In the jungle around Chunar, there are many Elephants." (p. 407). 

 Elsewhere, he asserts that the Elephant " inhabits the district of Kalpi ; and the 

 higlusr you advance from thence towards the East, the more do the wild Elephants 

 increase in number. That is the tract where the Elephant is chiefly taken. There 

 may be thirty or forty villages in Karrah and Manikpur that are occupied solely in 

 this employment of taking Elephants." Upou which, the translator justly ie narks, 

 iua note penned about half a century ago, that — "The improvement of Hindustan, 



