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Show 1904.] ON THE WILD ASS OF MONGOLIA. 431 from the original one-namely, a fawn-coloured animal with white stripes. A similar effect is produced in the living animal, as exemplified in York's picture, by photography. I explain this by the supposition that the light fawn bands between the dark bars of the Quagga, which evidently correspond to the white stripes of Grant's Bonte-Quagga, had a less stable pigment than the fawn of the rump; and that in dead specimens long exposed to the light these light areas (which were originally of the same colour as the rump) faded to white, and also come out white in photography ; while in both cases the more stable fawn of the rump (the typical ass-colour) retained its original tint, or approximately so. Whether the very curiously marked Quagga in the Vienna Museum figured in the Society's ' Proceedings' for 1902 (i. p. 32) indicates a distinct race I leave undecided, but, in any case, I think that its coloration is due to the same cause as that above mentioned. Reverting, in conclusion, once more to Dr. Major's observations, I have to notice the record of the presence of a vestige of the pit for the face-gland in the skull of a young Ass. Apparently a trace of a similar feature exists in one of two young skulls of that species in the collection of the Museum, so that its occurrence would seem to be only occasional. Nevertheless, this suffices to allow the statement that vestiges of the pit for the face-gland are now known to occur in the skulls of three existing species (including the Quagga in this category) of the Horse family, in one of which it appears to be constant. 2. Note on the Wild Ass of Mongolia. By E. LYDEKKER. [Received March 10,1904.] (Plates XXVII. & XXVIII.*) My attention has been directed by the President to a Wild Ass in his Grace's collection at Woburn Abbey, which was received with the Mongolian wild ponies, and is stated to have been obtained as a colt in Kobdo, north-west of the Gobi Desert. This animal, which is a male, is therefore about three years old, and thus approaching its full stature. The sketch reproduced in the accompanying Plate XXVII. was made in June 1903, at a time when the summer coat was at its best. In its make and actions-especially of starting when alarmed with the head so elevated that the plane of the face is almost horizontal-as well as in the general type of coloration, this Wild Ass agrees essentially with the Kiang of Laclak and Tibet. Both * For explanation of the Plates, see p. 432. |