1842.] Notice of the Mammals of Thibet. 287 



40. Asinus Equioides, Mihi. Species wants verification, spoken of 

 by Moorcroft and others : called wild Ass by the Tibetans, and said to be 

 common on the plains of Tibet. Possess no specimen. 



RODENTIA. 



MuRID^E. 



41. Genus Mus. Rats and mice are said to be common in Tibet, but 

 I have no specimens, and cannot therefore indicate species. 



42. Genus Sorex. One small species, Tibetanus ; no describable speci- 

 men. 



43. Genus Arctomys, A. Hemalayanus. Possess many skins from 

 the interior of Tibet, where the species is very common, and where also 

 are found some rarer murine forms that I have no means to illustrate, 

 such as the one adverted to by Moorcroft (I. 312). The traders of 

 Nepal of the Newar race, who are often domiciled in Tibet, upon seeing 

 my specimens of Rhizomys Badius, assure me, that this is the ordinary 

 house rat of Tibet, and no other than the animal indicated by Moorcroft. 



referred to is by no means constant (as his two specimens testified), and sometimes 

 there is even a double cross-band over the shoulders. Now with respect to the undoubted 

 Hemione, 1 may remark that an uncommonly fine male, which is probably still living 

 in the Surrey Zoological Gardens, has a very distinct incipient cross over its shoulders, 

 more developed on one side than on the other, though not above an inch or so on the 

 former; and therefore it is probable enough, that some examples of this species 

 may have the same mark further developed. Whether the Khur of Sir R. K. Porter 

 ('Travels,' I. 459), be specifically different from the Ghore-khur or Gurkhor, i. e. 

 the Hemione of modern naturalists, remains also to be ascertained. Of this we are in- 

 formed, that " no line whatever ran along his back, or crossed his shoulders, such 

 as are seen in the tame species with us ;" but "the mane was short and black, as was 

 also a tuft which terminated his tail :" and it is worthy of notice, that this traveller 

 completed the sketch which he has furnished of this animal from a second individual. 

 Certes, a wild Ass, or Hemione, of some kind, exists at the foot of Taurus (Ainsworth's 

 ' Travels in Assyria,' &c, p. 41) ; the same or another " is common in the districts of 

 the Tbebaid" (Wilkinson's ' Domestic Manners of the Ancient Egyptians,' III. 21) ; 

 and a " wild Ass" is mentioned in the narrative of Lander's Expedition (p. 571) ; but 

 of the genuine and indisputable wild Equus Asinus, we really possess no definitive in- 

 formation whatever, that should satisfy us of its present existence, however little 

 reason there may be to doubt this ; the Onager or Koulan, as we have seen, being very 

 probably no other than an occasional variety of the Hemionus, and the Hamar or 

 Hymar of Sir R. K. Porter, if really distinct from the last, which is very probable, 

 being still more different from the common tame Ass, since it has no dorsal marking 

 whatever, and the cross stripe of the so called Onager even was considerably less 

 developed than in a domestic Donkey. I look to the establishment of Mr. Hodgson's 

 Asinus Equioides with much interest; and indeed all the aboriginally wild Equine 

 animals of Central Asia, if we except the modernly termed Hemionus alone, are but 

 very vaguely known at present to Zoologists, and should be minutely described by 

 whoever has the good fortune to meet with one. — Cur. As. Soc. 



