THE AFRICAN WILD ASS. 13 



terises our domestic donkey, as indicating its being derived 

 from a desert-haunting animal, as also, he says, does its 

 pleasure in rolling in the dust. 



Of the African wild ass there are now (1894) three 

 specimens in the Zoological Gardens. A female purchased 

 by the Society in 1 881, has repeatedly bred, once with the 

 Asiatic ass {H. hemionus), and four times with a male of 

 her own species. 



The male African ass now in the Regent's Park is 

 stated to be not a native of Africa, but is said to have 

 come from the island of Diego Garcia, in the Indian 

 Ocean, where African asses were taken by sailing vessels, 

 and have become wild, retaining all their characteristics, 

 although somewhat reduced in size. In reference to this 

 statement. Admiral Kennedy, of H.M.S. ''Boadicea," 

 writing from Madagascar, June 25, 1893, informed me 

 that he had lately met with a gentleman who had lived 

 for eighteen years on the island of Diego Garcia, during 

 which time he had never met with a donkey (at least a 

 wild one), and he is certain that such an animal never 

 existed there. 



As is the case with the horse, the ass has been so long a 

 period under domestication that great variations exist in 

 its size and general character. Some asses in India are 

 said to be not larger than Newfoundland dogs. In the 

 south of Europe they are reared with care and attain a 

 large size, and in Poitou a very large breed, of great 

 strength and stoutness of limb, is reared for the purpose 

 of breeding draught mules that rival our large draught 

 cart horses in size and strength. 



The period of gestation in the ass is not, as generally 

 stated, even in scientific works such as Blanford's " Fauna 

 of British India : Mammalia," identical with that of the 



