The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-10-05
Recent Capture Will Determine
Whether Wild Horse is an Ass.
LONdOn Standard

]
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-
! Ierred to consider the horses of the
steppes as feral rather than truly wild
the descendants of domesticated ami
| malS 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. Pol
iakoff, announced that Colonel Preje-
VaIsky had discovered a distinct species
OF wild horse, which has since been
known as "Prejevalskys horse" The
species was founded on a skin sent to
the distinguished Russian explorer by
the magistrate of the district of Zaisap
who obtained it from some native hunt
ers. The skin was mounted, and is
now in the museum of the Imperial
Academy of Sciences at ST. Petersburg,
and the specimen is pretty we'll known
from the photographs in the fine al
oum illustrating Prejevalsky's collec-
tion. 1t was said to be intermediate
between the equine and asinine group.
having callosities, or "chestnuts," on
the hind limbs as we'll as on the fore
limbs, like true horse, while, accord
ing to PrejeValsky, the upper part of
the tail Is shaggy Qike that of an ass),
and the lower half Qike that of a
horse), covered with long, fine hair The
ears are smaller than those of the ass,
the name is dark brown in color, short
and hogsed, 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 bar
rel, the head reddish and the muzzle
white, the legs as remarkably thick
whitish on the upper half of the fore
legs 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 herd Prejevalsky saw
he was able to approach within range.
He fired, as did his companion, but
the only result was to alarm the Sni-
mails, and away went the leader, head
down and tail flying, followed by the
rest of the herd. He was even less
fortunate with the second herd, for be-
fore he could get near enough to fire
with any prospect of success, the ami
mails became aware of his presence and
We're off like the wind.
Some years later the brothers Girl
jimailo obtained four skins, three skulls
and a skeleton in the desert of Zun-
garia, where they had an opportunity
of studying this animal and watching
koff's description of the animal as a
new species. Sir William Flower,
however, suspended judgment on the
matter. and said that, until more speci-
mems had been obtained it was diff
cult to form an opinion as to the valid
ity of the species or to resist the sus-
picion 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 a specimen was acquired foI
the museum of the Jardin des Plantes
at Paris.
Now from Hamburg comes the news
that a whole herd-seventeen stations
and fifteen mares-had been captured
by collectors sent out by Herr Carl
Hagenbeck, the well known dealer in
wild animals, and is on the way to that
city, where the animals will arrive in
November. All of them are foals, and
each has a nurse in the shape of a
common Kirghizia mare. Some idea of
the difficulty attending their capture
may be gathered from the fact that |
nearly 1000 natives were engaged to |
help the European collectors. So def
mite pronouncement as to the true
character of "Prejevalsky's horse" is |
now near at hand. That it belongs to
the equine rather than to the asinine
section of the genus Equus is shown !
by the chestnuts on all the limbs and
the characters of the skull. 1t remains |
to be seen whether Poliakoff's descrip- !
tion really holds good, or whether the !
animal is a variety or ferai race of the !
horse. There will be plenty
of material for examination. The
breeding experiments in mating with
horses will be of the high
est Importance in settling this question,
when the fertility or sterility of the |
progeny is established.