240 On the different Animals known as wild Asses. [No. 3- 



the hills throughout the year, for among them are sandy plains of 

 greater or less extent. The foaling season is in June, July, and 

 August ; when the Beluchis ride down and catch numbers of foals, 

 finding a ready sale in the cantonments for them, as they are taken 

 down on speculation to Hindustan. They also shoot great numbers 

 of full grown ones for food, the ground in places in the desert being 

 very favorable for stalking. # * # Some are beautifully striped 

 on the legs; many are mottled. I have seen one or two of a very 

 dark colour. They have not generally the stripe on the shoulder, 

 though I think I have seen some with it slightly marked."* East- 

 ward of the Indus, this animal appears to be fast verging on exter- 

 mination ; and I am assured that one herd only is left in the Bika- 

 nir desert, where the foals are often run down, and Major Tytler's 

 specimens are from this locality. There are still a few also iu the 

 Kunn of Cutch.f " The wild Ass of Cutch and the north of Guz- 

 rat," remarked Col. Sykes in 1835, " is not found further south in 

 India than Deesa, on the banks of the Bunnas river in lat. about 

 23° 30'; nor have I heard of it to the eastward of the 75° of longi- 

 tude on the southern side of the Himalaya. In Cutch and northern 

 Guzrat it frequents the salt deserts and the open plains of the 

 Opur, Jaysulmir, and Bikanir." Again, Masson, in his ' Narrative 



* India Sporting Review, n. s. Ill, 172. 



f From information obtained by Major Tytler, it appears that the Bikanir herd 

 consists at most of 150 individuals, which frequent an oasis a little elevated above 

 the surrounding desert, and commanding an extensive view around ; the animals 

 being exceedingly shy, and making off on discerning an object of suspicion how- 

 ever distant. There is a low range of hills several miles off, in which is a water- 

 course dry during the hot season ; but at the head of this, about a mile into the 

 interior of the hills, there is a perpetual spring to which the Ghor-Jchurs resort to 

 drink during the night, maintaining the most vigilant caution. Once only in the 

 year, when the foals are young, a party of five or six native hunters, mounted on 

 hardy Sindh mares, chase down as many foals as they can succeed in tiring, which 

 lie down when utterly fatigued and suffer themselves to be bound and carried off. 

 In general they refuse sustenance at first, and about one-third only of those taken 

 are reared ; but these command high prices and find a ready sale with the native 

 princes. The profits are shared by the party, who do not attempt a second chase 

 in the same year, lest they should scare the herd from the district, as these men 

 regard the sale of a few Ghor-Jchurs annually as a regular source of subsistence. 



