The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-10-15
PREJEVALSKY'S HORSE.
A RECENT CAPTURE WILL DETER
NINE
whether the wild Horse OF Asia is "a
Horse or an ASS.

I'LL twenty years ago the tarpan, tne
so-called wild horse of the steppes, de-
scribed by Pallas, was regarded by
some continental biologists as the last
survivor of the species to which the
wild horse Of Europe of the Neolithic
period belonged. Other authorities pre-
ferred to consider the horses of the
steppes as feral rather than truly wild
the descendants of domesticated ami
mails which had escaped from captivity.
Whichever view is correct there can be
no doubt that the herds of horses which
formerly ranged from central Asia
westward to the Dnieper have in some
way been modified by an infusion OF
domesticated blood, to which, Mr.
Lydekker suggests, the uniform dun
color may possibly be due.
In 1881 the Russian naturalist, POLKA
koff, announced that Colonel Prejevals-
ky had discovered distinct species of
wild horse, which has since been
known as "Prejevalsky's horse" The
species was founded on a skin sent to
the distinguished Russian explorer by
the magistrate of the district of Zal-
san, who obtained it from some native
hunters. The skin was mounted, and Is
now in the museum of the Imperial
Academy of Science at ST. Petersburg,
and the specimen is pretty we'll known
from the photographs in the fine al
bum illustrating Prejevalsky's collec-
ton. 1t was said to be intermediate be-
tween the equine and asinine group,
having callosities, or ''chestnuts, on
the hind limbs as well as on the fore
limbs, like true horse, while, accord
ing to Prejevalsky. the upper part OF
the tail is shaggy dixie that of an ass),
and the lower half dixie that of horse)
covered with long, fine hair. The tars
are smaller than those of the ass, the
name is dark brown in color short ana
hogged, but there is no forelock.
Prejevalsky, in his three journeys to
Central Asia, met with but two herds
of these horses He described the color
of the body as whitish gray, fading to
white on the lower part of the barrel
the head reddish and the muzzle white;
the legs as remarkably thick, whitish
on the upper half of the forelegs which
are reddish at the knees, deepening to
black at the hoofs. and the hind legs
whitish. These animals frequent the
most desolate parts of the country, and
especially the salt steppes, and are
able to subsist without water for long
period They are hunted in the winter
and the hunters have to depend on the
snowfall for their own water supply.
The herds consist of from five to fifteen
mares led by a stallion. The first nero
Prejevalsky saw he was able to APP
proach within range. He fired, as did
his companion, but the only result was
to alarm the animals, and away went
the leader, head down and tail flying,
followed by the rest of the herd. lie
was even less fortunate with the sec
ond herd, for before he could get near
enough to fire with any prospect of sue
cess, the animals became aware or MS
presence and were off like the wind
Some years later the brothers Gri1im-
ailo obtained four skins, three skulls
and a skeleton in the desert of Zunga-
ri where they had an opportunity OF
studying this animal and watching its
habits, and they accepted Pollakoff
description of the animal as new spe-
cies Sir William Flower, however,
suspended judgment on the matter, and
said that, until more specimens mad
been obtained, it was difficult to form
an opinion as to the validity of the
species or to resist the suspicion that it
might not turn out to be an accidental
hybrid between the kiang. the wild ass
of the elevated plateaus of Thibet, and
the horse. Quite recently specimen
was acquired for the Museum of the
Jardin des Plantes at Paris.
Now from Hamburg comes the news
that a whole herd-seventeen stations
and fifteen mares-has been captured
by collectors sent out by Herr Carl Ha-
genbeck, the well-known dealer in wild
animals and is on the way to that city,
where the animals will arrive in No
vember. All of them are foals, and
each has a nurse in the shape of
common Kirghizis mare. Some idea of
the difficulty attending their capture
may be gathered from the fact that
nearly two thousand natives were en-
gagged to help the European collectors.
So definite pronouncenent as to the
true character of "Prejevalsky's horse"
is now near at hand. That 1t belongs
to the equine rather than to the asinlne
section of the genus Eguns Is shown by
the chestnuts on all the limbs and the
characters of the skull 1t remains to
be seen whether Poliakoff's description
really holds good, or whether the ami
NAL is variety or feral race of the do
nestle horse There will be plenty of
material for examination The breed
ing experiments in mating with domes-
ticated horses will be of the highest I'M
portance in settling this question, when
the fertility or sterility of the progency
Is stablished.--London Standard.