1859.] On the different Animals known as wild Asses. 251 



A writer on this animal observes, justly enough, that — " The Ass 

 is, properly speaking-, a mountain species ; his hoofs are long, and 

 furnished with extremely sharp rims, leaving a hollow in the centre, 

 by which means he is enabled to tread with more security on the 

 steep and slippery sides of precipices. The hoof of the Horse, on 

 the contrary, is round and nearly flat underneath, and we accord- 

 ingly find that he is more serviceable in level countries ; and indeed 

 experience has long since taught, that he is altogether unfit for 

 crossing rocky and steep mountains." Hill ponies may, indeed, be 

 cited as exceptions, to a greater or less extent : but the fact is 

 nevertheless true in the main ; and hence the breeding of mules in 

 mountainous countries, which should combine the size and strength 

 of one parent species with the hardihood and sure-ibotedness of the 

 other. All of the Asinine tribe seem to be quite indifferent to heat, 

 and some (at least) of them are equally so to cold, as especially 

 exemplified by the Koulans or Glwr-kliurs about Lake Aral ; and 

 the tame Asses of this country, under the fiercest mid-day sun, may 

 commonly be observed to evince their innate fondness for the 

 parched desert, as strongly as a kid manifests its propensity to 

 clamber rocks, by keeping to the dusty roads, in preference to the 

 pasture, whenever they are not feeding. Of several species so very 

 nearly akin, in different countries, it is remarkable that only the Ass 

 should have been subjected to servitude (save in a few individual 

 cases at most) ; but it appears that the experiments which have been 

 systematically carried on, now for several 3 ears, by the Acclimation 

 Society at Paris, have been attended with considerable success in 

 breaking in Ghor-khurs, which have been bred there for a series 

 of generations, and that these animals are now daily mounted and 

 ridden. Many years ago, the celebrated Sheriff Perkins drove a 

 pair of Quaggas through the streets of London, as I well remember 

 to have witnessed when a child. • 



The following species of the division Asiisrus, as defined by Gray, 

 are now likely to be generally acknowledged. 



1. A. quaoga. The Quagga, from the Cape territories ; and scarce- 

 ly found northward of the Gariep or Orange river ; but still in great 

 herds southward, associating with the White-tailed Gnu, as the next 

 does with the, Brindled Gnu, and both with Ostriches(as in Xeuophon's 



2 k 2 



