1862.] 
A 'Further Note on Wild Asses. 
865 
Donkey being broader, much wider apart, and black. None of tbe 
kindred races is stated, ever, to be of a slaty hue ; though it now 
appears that both Ghor-lchur and Kyang are subject to variation of 
colour; and, in India, the puny domestic Asses of the country exhibit 
precisely the same range of colouring as the Camel. Ajpie^Assis 
what I have never heard of. Here, the reported ‘ wild Ass’ of the 
N. E. Shan States, noticed in p. 169 antea , may again be referred to.* 
2. The alleged Wild Horses of Mongolia. 
In the late Mr. T. Witlam Atkinson’s ‘ Travels in the Regions of the 
Upper and Lower Amoor,’ &c. (2nd edit., 1861), the Appendix consists of 
a series of highly interesting lists of the mammalia, birds, and ordinary 
plants, respectively of the valley of the Amoor (divided into Upper, 
Middle, and Lower), of the Kirghiz steppe, Kara-taw, Ala-taw, and 
Tarbagatai, and of the trans-Baikal and Siberia.t Equus hemiojstus 
is mentioned, as an inhabitant only of the upper Amoor territory ; and 
Equits caballus sylvestris, only in the grand last-mentioned region : 
but the description (in p. 825) most assuredly denotes a feral as 
distinguished from an aboriginally wild race of Horse, or rather of 
Fony, analogous to that of true wild Ass in Africa. With the wild 
Asini (of different specific races), some variation of shade of colour un¬ 
doubtedly does occur, as before remarked; but is exceptional. No 
aboriginally wild mammal is known that varies ordinarily so much in 
hue, as would seem to be implied by Mr. Atkinson’s description of 
the alleged wild Horses of Mongolia. 
“ This animal is not like the wild [or rather feral ] Horse of 
South America, which undoubtedly sprung from those taken into the 
country by the Spaniards. He is of a distinct race from the Asiatic 
Horse [which, of among so very many Asiatic races ? At all events, he, 
too, is Asiatic;] very small (not so large as an Ass), beautiful in form, 
having a small head and short ears, and varying in colour from black, 
bay, grey, and white, the latter being the most rare. He is called ‘ Muss’ 
by the Kirghis. His sense of smell is very acute, which renders him 
most difficult to approach, and few Horses can run him down.” The 
author incidentally mentions that these animals are found, in great 
herds (about May), near the foot of the mountains beyond the river 
* I have recently observed several domestic Asses, of a very dark colour, but 
having no trace of the cross. 
t From Dr. Leopold von Schrenk. Vide Natural History Review, Jan. 
1861, p. 13. 
8 B 2 
