286 Notice of the Mammals of Thibet. [No. 124. 



Much is still sent to China, and chiefly from the Dokpa district, six 

 stages east of Lassa. It is, par excellence, the Kaghaze, that is, thin-as- 

 paper pod, and is principally obtained from M. Chrysogaster. 



Genus Equus. 



38. Equus Caballus, tame. From China to Bokhara through Tibet, 

 there are found few or no horses, but a great variety of ponies, all re- 

 markable for their excellence for mountainous travelling. Towards 

 and in China, the breed appears to be the smallest and highest spirited, 

 shewing as much blood as the finest Java pony. Towards and in the 

 Himalayan districts, there is more size and bone, but less fire. The 

 breeds of Eastern Tibet, such as the Poomi and Gyanche, best unite the 

 two properties of the others, or strength and spirit; whilst towards 

 Western Tibet, there is a gradual increase of size till you reach the 

 Choughosa " Cob" of Samarcund and Bokhara. In most of the Cis- 

 Himalayan districts, likewise from Kumaon to Deo Dharma, " Hill 

 ponies," as we call them, are bred, but none of them equal, I think, to 

 the Trans-Himalayan races, among which I prefer that of Lassa, a 

 smallish breed, but stronger and larger than the gallant little " Chinia," 

 and not materially or inconveniently less resolute or animated. The 

 proposed Gorkha corps of mounted riflemen should, if possible, be fur- 

 nished with some good breed of these ponies. 



39. Equus, wild ; E. Kiang, Moorcroft ; E. Hemione, Auct. ? Found 

 generally throughout Tibet. I have no specimen.* 



* Mr. Moorcroft remarks of this animal ('Travels', Residence at Ladakh, I. 311), 

 that " it is certainly not the Gurkhor, or wild Ass of Sindh," which is the Hemione; 

 see also p. 443 of the same volume for some description of this Kiang, which Dr. 

 Gerard met with " in great herds" on the Himalaya, at an altitude of 17,7(X) feet ; indeed 

 it appears to be essentially a mountain animal, which "bounds up the rocks" with 

 speed and facility ; whereas the Hemione is rather an inhabitant of the sandy level. 

 Col. Hamilton Smith, in his admirable treatise on the E quid ce, (Nat. Libr., Mam., 

 XII,) conceives the Kiang to be one of several existing wild species of true Horse, 

 and suggests that the "wild Asses" of Bell, with hair "waved white and brown," 

 some skins of which were seen by that traveller near the sources of the Oby, may refer 

 to no other; but this is mere conjecture, and Col. Smith appears to me to be little 

 warranted in his endeavour to derive the pie-bald races of horses from this peculiar 

 stock. 



I may take this opportunity of remarking, too, that I entertain considerable doubts 

 as to whether the reputed "wild Ass" of Prof. Gemelin be aught but a variety of 

 the Hemione : the female observed by that naturalist had no cross-stripe over its 

 shoulders, such as was found in the male, and is, so far as I have observed (and my 

 attention has been long directed to the subject), invariably constant in the domestic 

 Ass; whereas in the Mongolian Onager, M. Gmelin was informed that the mark 



