36G 
A Further Note on Wild Asses. 
[No. 4, 
lli; and describes the mode of hunting them, which is to chase a 
herd into a narrow mountain-pass, secured on the other side, so that 
the poor animals run into a trap, and are there cruelly butchered 
with battle-axes; for “ the Khirghiz consider their flesh the greatest 
delicacy the steppe affords.” 
I am disposed to consider that the herds, referred to, have about as 
much claim to be considered as aboriginally wild, as have the New 
Forest Ponies in England,—neither less nor more,—or, as the feral 
cattle of Chillingham Park, with their likewise very suspicious colour¬ 
ing ; the latter, too, being artificially maintained by weeding out all 
calves that deviate in hue. I do not think that the Equtts caballtjs 
has, anywhere, so good a claim to be regarded as aboriginally wild, at the 
present day, as have the One-humped Camels noticed by Euppell, as 
abounding in the long stretch of desert between the valley of the 
Nile and the Red Sea ; but, it is to be regretted that M. Riippell does 
not mention the colouring of these animals, whether, or not, subject 
to much variation. A large proportion of the domestic Camels of vast 
tracts of the African continent are white; and a prevalence of white 
individuals would be highly suspicious, in the herds which M. Eup¬ 
pell considers as feral ; but which may yet be truly as aboriginally 
wild as are the African wild Asses, which, also, by the way, were 
considered as feral by the late Prince of Canino. It must be a rare 
circumstance, indeed, for a Camel, left to perish by the Arabs and 
others, to recover ; though, still, Camels may have strayed from 
domesticity. Should the wild herds not vary much in colour, I see no 
reason why they might not be regarded as probably aboriginal.* 
* When I noticed what I termed the decimation of the wild herds of Ele¬ 
phants in Borneo ( in p. 197 antea,) it should have been remarked, that, if the 
tuskers only were killed, it would no more affect the multiplication of the race, than 
does the withdrawal by emasculation of so many males of our common domes¬ 
tic animals. Pro tanto , therefore, the decimation argument goes for nothing. 
The Mogul Emperor Baber mentions, incidentally, the occurrence of the Rhino¬ 
ceros, the wild Buffalo, and the Lion, in the neghbourliood of Benares ; and 
wild Elephants in the vicinity of Chunar! When nearly approaching Benares, 
he states—“ At the station, a man said that in an island close on the edge of the 
camp, he had seen a Lion and a Rhinoceros. Next morning we drew a ring 
round the ground ; we also brought Elephants to be in readiness, but no Lion 
nor Rhinoceros was roused. On the edge of the circle one wild Buffalo was 
started In the jungle around Chunar, there are many Elephants.” (p.'407). 
Elsewhere, he asserts that the Elephant “ inhabits the district of Kalpi; and the 
higher you advance from thence towards the East, the more do the wild Elephants 
increase in number. That is the tract where the Elephant is chiefly taken. There 
may be thirty or forty villages in Earrah and Manikpur that are occupied solely in 
this employment of taking Elephants.” Upon which, the translator justly remarks, 
in a note penned about half a century ago, that—“The improvement of Hindustan, 
