Il6 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



attributable to the fact that his place of origin 

 was a mountainous region in the tropics, where 

 he was subject to great variations of temperature. 

 The giraffes and many of the antelopes, which 

 come from near the same region as the wild ass, 

 but are not highlanders, soon perish in a northern 

 climate, as the trustees of the Zoological Gardens 

 of London have found to their cost. 



The donkey's legs have a considerable resem- 

 blance to those of the bighorn, chamois, and other 

 climbing animals. They are stout and sinewy, 

 and his hoofs are more pointed than those of the 

 horse. He has no very great speed on level 

 ground, but he can climb almost as well as a goat 

 when he pleases. He has excellent nerves, is 

 not given to shying or panic, and never loses his 

 head on the most perilous track. The Syrian 

 wild ass, the one mentioned in Scripture, is a 

 much swifter animal ; but I am here speaking of 

 the family of our domestic variety. 



The fact just mentioned — viz., that donkeys 

 are not given to shying — rather supports the 

 theory put forward in the previous chapter as to 

 the probable origin of that troublesome habit in 

 the horse. It was mentioned above that horses 

 coming from an open country, such as the Arabs 



