1859.] On the different Animals known as wild Asses. 245 



pia.')" According also to Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, they are " com- 

 mon in the districts of the Thebaid."* Hoskins met with them in 

 the small desert immediately below the fifth cataract. " This de- 

 sert," he remarks, " is sandy, with quartz and flinty slate disseminat- 

 ed. We saw for the first time three wild Asses, which had been 

 browsing among the acacias near the Nile. There are great num- 

 bers of them in the country ; but the peasants very seldom succeed 

 in catching or destroying them. A mixed breed [!] is sometimes 

 seen in the villages. From the description of the Arabs, I conceive 

 that the Zebra [A. Burchellii], also, exists in these deserts. The 

 Nile Ass seems larger than the common one ; but we were at too 

 great a distance to observe them particularly. The peasants seldom 

 chase them, but with a good Horse it is not very difficulfc."f 



Both "wild Asses" and " Zebras" are noticed by Mr. W. C. 

 Kirk, in his ' Report on the lloute from Tajurra to Ankobar.'J 

 Eiippeli has determined this northern Zebra to be the A. Bur- 

 chellii, or Dauw of the Cape colonists, — the Uquus zebra of 

 Burchell, as distinguished from his E. montanus, — -and undoubtedly 

 the true Hippotigris of the ancients, if not also the original ' Zebra' 

 of Pigafetta from Congo :§ the tcild-Paard of the Dutch colonists, 

 or ' Mountain Zebra' of Burchell, being the Equtjs or Asinus zebra 

 of modern technical nomenclature. This I mention, because the 

 French zoologists, from Cuvier to M. Isidore St. Hilaire.|| persist in 

 the mistake of identifying the " Zebra de montaigue" with the 

 Dauw or A. Burchellii. 



Bruce notices " Zebras" as being " found in Abyssinia only in the 

 south-west extremity of Kuora amid the Shangalla and Gaila, in 

 Narea and Caff, and in the mountains of Dyre and Tegla, and 

 thence to the southward." — " Wild Asses," too, he remarks, " I 



* * Domestic Manners of the Ancient Egyptians,' III, 21, 



t ' Travels in Ethiopia,' p. 41. 



X Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. XII, 234 ; and for another notice of an African wild 

 Ass, ibid. X, 461. In the narrative of Lander's expedition (p. 5/1), a " wild 

 Ass," is mentioned, whatever this may refer to. 



§ Col. C. H. Smith considers this northern 'Zebra' to be distinct, and styles it 

 Hippotiyris anthjuorum ; but I think on very insufficient evidence. 

 j| Comptes Rendus, 1855, p. 1215. 



