71 
Ass and a Wild species. When taken, they appear, after a short time, to submit themselves to man, which 
is not the case with what I have considered the truly Wild kind. 
Pallas justly observes, — "In extensis Asi£e desertis primam patriam esse queerendam Equrferi et Ofiagri 
a Nomadibus in domesticos usus domatorum, eeque ac Hemioni hactenus indomiti " (Zool. Ross. A. i. 255). 
This is equally applicable to the African species. 
The As SES OF Asia are nearly uniformly coloured with a dark, longitudinal dorsal stripe ; some have a 
black stripe across the shoulders. 
The Ass. Asims vulgaris . 
Grey, with a longitudinal dorsal streak and a dark streak across the shoulders ; skull with suborbital 
foramen, as in E. Kiang. 
Equus Onager, Pallas, Everm. Proc. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 1840, 56. — Equus Asinus, Linn. — Pallas, Zool. R. A. 
i. 263. — Equus asina, Fleming, Phil. Zool. ii. — Asinus vulgaris, Gray, Zool. Journ. i. 244. — Asinus and A. 
sylvestris, Plin. Hist. Nat. viii. 44. — Ass, Penn. — Berwick. — Asne, BufFon. — Ane, Cuvier. 
Var. ? Onager, Plin. H. N. viii, 44.— Raii Quad. 6. — E. Asinus Onager, Schreb. Saugth. t. 312. — Equus Onager, 
Brisson. — Wild Ass, Bell, Travels, i. 212. — Koulan or Wild Ass, Penn. Quad. 
Pallas, in a paper entitled " Observations sur I'Asne dans son etat sauvage, ou sur le veritable Onagre 
des Anciens" (Act. Acad. Sci. Imp. Petrop. 1777, 258. t. II), figured a Wild Ass which was sent by sea 
from Derbent to Astracan. The figure greatly resembles the mule between the Hemione and the Ass now 
in the Zoological Gardens, but the ears appear a trifle longer. It is coloured in the same manner as the 
Hemione ; that is to say, the more prominent parts of the body are dark, and the middle of the back, the 
front of the haunches and thigh, and the under part of the body, are paler. The figure represents but a 
very indistinct cross band on the shoulder; indeed on this point Pallas observes, — " L'etalon dilferait encore 
de la femelle en ce qu'il avait tout le corps plus robuste, I'encolure plus grosse, le poitrail et la croupe plus 
large, et surtout par un barre ou raye transversale (tab. II) qui croisait sur les epaules avec celle que s'etend 
de long de I'epine dans I'un et I'autre sexe. C'est cette croix que la pluspart des anes domestiques males 
ont conserve, et qui embellit surtout ceux qui ont la couleur du poile claire. Cette barre transversale, bien 
plus etroite que I'autre, manque entierement aux Onagres femelles : quelques Tatares m'ont an contraire 
assure qu'elle se voyant assez souvent double dans les males. — /. c. 269. 
This paper is translated into German, and a copy of the plates with a second figure of the back of the 
animal is given in Pallas (N. Nord. Beytr. ii. 22. t. 2), but in this figure the cross band on the shoulders is 
not at all marked. 
From this description it would appear that the animal which is called the JJlld Ass is not always marked 
with the cross band on the shoulder which is so permanent in the Domestic kind, and has hitherto been 
considered as its specific character. 
The chief diflference between Pallas's figure of the Wild Ass and the Hemione is the greater length and 
more acute form of the ears ; mules vary in the latter character. 
I have seen a specimen of the usual grey colour, without any appearance of the cross. They are some- 
times black, at others white, and are rarely piebald ; but this is the Common Albinism and Melanism of 
Domestic Animals, when of these colours the cross band is not apparent, or only to be seen when the 
animal is observed obliquely. Many Domestic Asses have the legs more or less distinctly cross-banded, 
especially near the hock. 
The IcKTA or Hemione, Asinus Hemionus. 
Fur short, smooth, pale reddish (in winter long, rather woolly, greyish), with a longitudinal black 
dorsal streak, widest over the small of the back ; no .cross shoulder band ; skull with the infra- 
orbital foramen high up, about one-third the space between the face-line and the back edge of the 
teeth, far back, being directly over the front end of the cheek-ridge and the back edge of the 
third grinder, 
Mulus dauricus foecundus, Misserchm. W^'^.— Equus Hemionus, Pallas, Nov. Com. Petrop. xix. 394. t. 7, copied 
Neue Nord Beytr. ii. 22. 1. 1, good; Reise, iii. 217, cop. Schreber, Saugth. t. 311.— Gray, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. 1849, 29.-1. Geoff. Nouv. Ann. Mus. H. N. t. .— Eichw. Faun. Casp. Qsmx.— Equus Hemionos, Bodd. 
— Asinus Hemionus, Gray, Zool. Journ. i. MA— Wild Ass of Kutch and the Indus, Sykes, Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1837, 91 — Onager, Barboza, Collect. Ramusio, i. 300 b.—IcJcta, Shaw, Zool. ii. 427 —Dshikketei, Penn. 
—Dziggetai, Cuvier, R. A. i. 244 —Dzigithai, BufFon, Supp. vi. 37— Wild Mule, Half Ass or Fecund Mule, 
Penn. Quad. \.— Hemionos, Plin. Hist. Nat. viii. c. 44— L'HSmione, Ency. Method, t. 43. f. 4. 
Inhabits India, Cutch, Persia. 
