EQUIDE 383 
as in America, horses imported by the European settlers have 
escaped into the unreclaimed lands, and multiplied to a prodigious 
extent, roaming in vast herds over the plains where no hoofed 
animal ever trod before. 
A wild Horse from Central Asia, named £. prezevalskii,) is 
described as having callosities on both limbs and broad hoofs like 
E. caballus ; but the long hairs of the tail do not begin until about 
half way down its length. It also differs from #. caballus in having 
a short erect mane and no forelock; neither is there any dorsal 
stripe. The ears are of moderate size; the whole body is of a 
whitish-gray, paler beneath, and reddish on the head and upper 
parts of the limbs. If rightly described this form would appear 
to be intermediate between the true Horses and the Asses. 
The second species is the domestic Ass (£. asinus), and the wild 
Asses of Africa (LZ. asinus, var. africanus and var. somalicus?). The 
domestic Ass, which is now nearly as widely diffused and useful 
to man as the Horse, was known in Egypt long before the latter, 
and is doubtless of African origin. The ears are long, the mane 
erect, the tail without long hairs at the base, and there are no 
callosities on the hind limbs. There is a dark dorsal stripe, and 
another across the shoulders ; while the limbs are frequently banded. 
Of the wild forms the Nubian race (var. africanus) has distinct 
dorsal and shoulder stripes, but the rings on the limbs are often very 
indistinct ; while in the Somali race the dorsal stripe is indistinct, 
and the shoulder stripe wanting, but the rings on the ‘limbs are 
very boldly marked. Teeth and bones from a Pleistocene cavern 
deposit in Madras have been referred to E. asinus. 
The Asiatic wild Asses, which roam in small herds in the open 
plains of Syria, of many parts of Persia, of the north-west of India, 
and the highlands of Tartary and Tibet, from the shores of the 
Caspian to the frontiers of China, differ from the last in being of a 
more rufous or isabelline colour, instead of pure gray, in wanting 
the dark streak across the shoulder, and having smaller ears. They 
have all a dark-coloured median dorsal stripe. Though it is con- 
sidered probable by many zoologists that they form but a single 
species ? (E. hemionus), they present such marked variations in size 
and form that they have commonly been divided into three—the 
Syrian Wild Ass (£. hemippus), the Onager (£. onager) from Persia, 
Baluchistan, the Punjab, Sind, and the desert of Kach, and the 
Kiang or Dzeggetai (£. hemionus) of the high table-lands of Tibet, 
where it is usually met with at an elevation of 15,000 feet and 
upwards above the sea-level. The last is considerably larger than 
1 See Nature, 21st August 1884, and Zool. Garten. vol. xxviii. p. 453. 
2 See Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 542. 
3 See Blanford, Zoology and Geology of Eastern Persia (Journeys of the Persian 
Boundary Commission), p. 84. 
