THE ASS. 369 



Major St. John says/ " Wild asses are locally distributed in 

 Balucliistan, and I only heard of their being abundant near 

 Bampur. None are said to be found in the deserts north of Jalk 

 and Kalagan, though Ferrier speaks of them as common further 

 north in Sistdn. In Persia they appear similarly to be common 

 in some places, generally on the borders of desert plains, rare or 

 unknown elsewhere ; but they occur scattered over all the more 

 level parts of the country, except in the north-western and 

 Caspian provinces. I saw none in my journey, though I often 

 came across their tracks. ' 



" The Persian wild ass is not, I believe, found west of the main 

 road from Tehran to Shiraz, except possibly in that arm of the 

 salt desert which extends north of Kom (Kum or Koom) toward 

 Saveh. It is most plentiful in the vicinity of the patches of salt 

 desert, ' Kafah ' or ' Kavir,' which are so marked a characteristic 

 pf eastern Persia. In the summer a herd occasionally wanders 

 into the loftier desert valleys. I have several times seen them 

 whilst travelling post along the plain that stretches from Khan-i- 

 Khora, a short distance north of Dehbid in Pars, to the Kulah 

 Kazi or IJrchin Hills, near Isfahan, a distance of nearly 150 miles, 

 at an elevation of 5500 to 7000 feet above the sea. Persians 

 say they cannot be caught by a single horseman when approached 

 in the open ; bat if the sportsman can manage to conceal himself 

 and his horse in the vicinity of a spring, and wait till the wild 

 asses have quenched their thirst, they can readily be come up 

 'jyith when full of water, by a short spurt on a fast horse. At 

 other times they are caught by relays of horsemen and grey- 

 hounds." 



From the extraordinary speed these asses possess they are con- 

 sidered the noblest kind of game, and are constantly hunted, both 

 for the excitement of the chase, and for the hide, which is converted 

 into leather and becomes the common Turkish shagreen from which 

 so many articles are made ; and also for the flesh, which is generally 

 described as a great delicacy. Major St. John, however, states 

 that although in several books on Persia the flesh is said to be prized 

 i See "The Zoology and Geology of Persia," by W. T. Blanford, A.R.S.M., 



F.R.S. 



B b 



