POINTS OF THE ASS. 285 



a wild ass, and could have been readily broken to harness or 

 saddle. It stood about the height of the Burchell zebra. 

 Its colour on the shoulders and body was brown. The head 

 and neck were marked alternately with white and dark-brown 

 stripes, like those of the mountain zebra. There were on the 

 shoulders and body some faint stripes, which gradually faded 

 away as they went backwards. The colour was more or less 

 white beneath the chest and belly, on the tail, except at the 

 root, and on the legs below the elbows and stifles. It had a 

 broad stripe down the back. It closely resembled BurchelFs 

 zebra, with the exception of being differently marked, and 

 being more heavily built. 



Points of the Ass. — The law which I put forward in 

 Chapters I. and XV., with respect to the influence of 

 comparative length of limb on speed and strength, holds 

 as good in the case of the ass, as it does in that of the 

 horse. From it we may justly infer that the onager is the 

 speediest of its class. From personal deductions, which I 

 cannot support by any precise data, I would think that 

 the onager is faster for its size, and under equal conditions, 

 than any kind of wild horse, or, perhaps, than any horse 

 which has not some English racing blood in his veins. 

 As it is not at all probable that this ass will be bred for 

 racing purposes, I need form no conjectures respecting its 

 future on the turf. I have already alluded to the fact 

 of the ass being higher over the croup than at the 

 withers. In the domestic ass, the gaskins and fore arms 

 are, as a rule, very poor ; but they are not so, at least 

 to anything like the same extent, ^ in the wild ass. Proba- 

 bly, on account of the ass having fewer loin vertebras 

 (p. 275) than the horse, it has less tendency to be ''slack 

 in the loins.*' Compared to the horse, the ass has a very 

 weak tail, and is consequently unable to '' carry its flag " 

 in the style usually affected by a spirited horse during 

 movement. 



