30 THE ASIATIC WILD ASS. 



THE KIANG. 



(Equus hemionus, var. Kiang.) 



Although regarded by the majority of naturalists as a 

 local variety of tlie Asiatic wild ass {E. hemionus), the 

 kiangj or dzeggetai^ of Tibet differs so mucli from the 

 better-known Indian mid ass as to render a detailed notice 

 of it desirable. As will be seen by the engraving — which 

 has been most accurately reproduced from a photograph 

 of a kiang formerly existing in the Zoological Gardens — 

 this animal differs from the onager, being larger and more 

 powerful in the hindquarters, which appear abnormally 

 developed in length and strength. It is also larger in 

 size, reaching to 14 hands, and its colour is a rufous-bay, 

 with a much narrower dorsal stripe than is found in the 

 onager. Its voice is described as a neigh, and not like 

 that of the onager — a shrieking bray. 



The habits of the kiang are not as familiar to us as 

 those of the wild asses of India, but they have been 

 admirably described by more than one traveller who has 

 visited the country. A very vivid sketch of the animal, 

 from a sportsman's point of view, is to be found in Colonel 

 Kinloch's " Large Game Shooting of Thibet and India," 

 although the author's statements that there is a doubt as 

 to whether it is a horse or an ass, and that it is more 

 closely allied to the zebra, or quagga, than to the ass, will 

 not be accepted by naturalists. 



" The kyang (says Colonel Kinloch) prefers the most desolate 

 places in the vicinity of lakes and large rivers. It delights in 

 the coarse and -wiry pasturage, its favourite food being a rough, 

 yellow grass, as hard and sharp as a penknife. 



"No animal is a greater nuisance to the sportsman. Very 

 inquisitive by nature, as soon as kyang observe a strange 



