122 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



are witless creatures, and makes their mental 

 poverty a byword. But if any of us highly 

 intelligent and educated folk were removed from 

 our normal surroundings, to which we have adap- 

 ted ourselves at considerable labour and expense, 

 and were suddenly turned loose to get a living 

 among the deserts of Nubia or the Siberian 

 marshes, we should doubtless offer as fair a 

 laughing-stock to the wild asses and the wild 

 geese. 



The obstinacy of the ass is a trait in his char- 

 acter which must have attracted the attention of 

 the most careless naturalist. It is not a quality 

 which his employer deems specially useful, rather 

 the reverse : yet we must remember that on a 

 long journey where food and water are scanty 

 and the difficulties of travel are serious, the ass 

 or the mule will, because of this unyielding tem- 

 per, keep going longer than the average horse. 



It seems to me likely that the great difference 

 in character between the horse and the ass is 

 chiefly owing to the fact that when wild the 

 former go in large herds and the latter in small. 

 As has been remarked above, the horse is much 

 more of a society animal than the donkey, and 

 this, doubtless, is the reason why his manners are 



