1859.] On the different Animals known as wild Asses. 229 



On the different Animals known as wild Asses. — 

 By Edward Blyth. 



At least four distinct species — if the Dshiggitai or Kyang (Eqitus 

 hemionus of Pallas) be considered to differ specifically from the 

 Koulan or Ghor-Jchar (E. onager vel E. asinus onager of Pallas) 

 — have been confounded under the general denomination of ' wild 

 x\sses' : and two of the four have likewise been designated ' wild 

 Horses' ; a name to which they are less entitled, as all agree in 

 exhibiting the few structural distinctions that characterize the 

 Asinine sub-group apnrt from the JSquine or Cahalline. 



The systematic names bestowed by Pallas are so far unfortunate, 

 that they do not apply to the particular species which were known 

 by them to the ancient Greeks and Romans — one of which latter 

 has only recently been discriminated by Professor Isidore Geoffroy 

 St. Hilaire, by the name Equus hemipptts. This (from its habitat) 

 is necessarily the Hemionus vel Hemippus, or * wild mule,' of the 

 ancients ; whilst their Onager (as the name implies) refers as clearly 

 to the veritable wild E. asinus, which, to this day, as formerly, 

 exists in numerous troops in N. E. Africa, if not also in the south- 

 ern parts of Arabia and island of Socotra. The dzemippus of mo- 

 dern nomenclature is the representative of the present group in 

 Syria, Mesopotamia, and the northern portion of Arabia, where de- 

 signated by Col. Chesney the ' wild Horse,' as distinguished from his 

 1 wild Ass' of southern Arabia ; and it is the species figured in 

 Wagner's Saugtheire (1856), pi. 33, by the erroneous name of 

 Equus asinus onager of Pallas, from a living individual formerly 

 in the Knowsley menagerie. 



It should be especially noted that the great naturalist, Pallas, de- 

 scribed his E. hemionus from personal observation of the animal ; 

 whereas he describes his E. onager only at second-hand, having 

 never seen a specimen. Had he personally inspected the latter, it 

 is exceedingly doubtful if he would have recognised the two as 

 distinct species, or have considered the western animal to be the 

 real Onager or aboriginal wild Ass. In his account of the Dshig- 

 gitai, he remarks—" On ne doit pas le confondre avec l'ane des 



