1859.] On the different Animals known as wild Asses. 231 



While identifying the Kyang with the Dshiggitai, however, Pro- 

 fessor Walker little imagined that he was making the same mistake 

 that he considered M. Frederic Cuvier and others to have done, in 

 referring the Ghor-hhur also to E. iiemionus. I find that the Ghor- 

 khur accords to the minutest particular with the Koidan or E. ona- 

 ger of Pallas, figured by Professor Gmeliu from an occasional 

 variety bearing a short humeral stripe (which is not rare also in 

 Indian specimens of either sex),* from the presence of which the 

 identity of this animal with the true Ass has been generally but 

 erroneously inferred. Of the two individuals then at St. Peters- 

 burgh, which are described by Professor Gmelin, it may be remark- 

 ed that his male only had the shoulder-stripe, and his female not a 

 trace of it ; and he was informed that individuals had been seen 

 with a second shoulder-stripe. This I have myself observed in the 

 domestic Ass, and even a third and fourth, more or less developed, 

 the additional being of variable length, and given off along the back 

 as far as the loins ; though it is very rarely that more than a single 

 stripe occurs, and I have seen only one domestic iVss without the 

 shoulder-stripe. Many of our Indian Donkeys have also well de- 

 fined transverse bars on the limbs, which are permanent for life 

 (not, as described by Professor T. Bell, peculiar to the foal) ; they 

 are often black and strongly contrasting, placed rather distantly 

 apart, and they vary much in length. It is remarkable that some 

 races of Horses also have the same markings. The well known 

 * Eel-back dun' of England is so named from its black dorsal stripe, 

 bearing a supposed resemblance to an Eel ; the Indian Kattyawar or 

 rather Cutch Horse has generally, in addition, the shoulder-stripe, 

 and Zebra-markings on the limbs, black and very distinct and con- 

 spicuous ; and the same may be observed of many of the Shan 

 ponies, from the independent states north of Burma, many of which 

 are brought annually to Maulmein, and not a few thence to Cal- 

 cutta. I have seen one of these of the pale drab colour usual in 

 the Ass, with the cross and the stripes on the limbs deep black and 



* Jacquemont notices such a specimen, which he saw in Barrackpore Park, 

 Voyage dans Vlnde. I, 170. Vide also J. A. S. XXVI, 240. la Pallas's Zoof/rap/iia 

 Rosso-asiatica, which 1 have seen since penning the above, there is a coloured 

 figure of E. onager, but much too rufous in the particular copy to accord with 

 the description. 



