98 THE QUEST FOE THE WILD HORSE 
In the Southern Forest there are many hundreds of 
semi-wild donkeys, as well as ponies, which are left to 
Nature from year to year. The ponies are of every 
colour known in the annals of horse-breeding, but the 
shaggy little donkeys are all of a uniform dark stone- 
colour, which never varies. Looking at the beautiful 
wild asses from the Desert of Cutch, Southern Africa, 
and Central Asia, which are exhibited at the Zoo, 
one is tempted to wonder how it comes that the race 
in this country has been allowed to degenerate, 
instead of being retained as a strong and useful 
auxiliary to our unrivalled breed of horses. 
