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Show 1884.] MAMMALS FROM SOMALI-LAND. 541 ings on both front and hind legs. It has likewise, as will be better noticed on examining the living animals, smaller ears and a longer and more flowing mane. It might be supposed that these are individual variations. But, as will be seen upon inspection of the flat skin from Somali-land which I now exhibit, the same distinguishing features likewise present themselves in this second specimen. Moreover, Mr. E. Lort Phillips, F.Z.S., who visited the Berberah district in March last in company with Mr. F. L. James and his brother, assured me that the Wild Asses which he there met with were exactly of the same description. Mr. Lort Phillips writes as follows :- " O n March 22, 1884, when about 20 miles to the west of Berberah we fell in with a small herd of Wild Asses. After a long and tedious stalk I succeeded in bagging one ; which turned out to be of quite a new species to me, having no mark whatever on the body, which was of a beautiful " French grey " colour. On its legs, however, it had black stripes running diagonally. I have unfortunately lost the book in which 1 put its measurements, but it was a superb creature and stood quite 14 hands at the shoulder; our Berberah horses looked quite small in comparison. The previous day Mr. F. L. James had shot a new Antelope \ and Mr. W . D. James a Lesser Koodoo." It would likewise, I think, be probable on theoretical grounds that animals occupying such different and widely separated areas of distribution would present points of difference. But assuming this to be the case, a great difficulty arises as to the proper terms to be applied to these two animals. I have hitherto called the Nubian form of which we have had a specimen in the Gardens before the one that is now living there 2 Equus taniopus, Heuglin. In so doing I acted on the supposition that only one species of African Wild Ass was known to exist. But seeing there appear to be two, it becomes necessary to make some further inquiries on the subject. Heuglin described his Equus taniopus in his article on the Fauna of the Red Sea and Somali Coast already referred to. In his appendix to this article (Petermann's Mittheilungen, 1861, p. 19) he distinguishes two species of African Wild Ass. The first of these, from the provinces of Taka and Berber, is clearly our animal of the Nubian Desert, w'hich he proposes to call Equus asinus. The second species, which he attributes to Shoa and the Somali Coast, he proposes to call Equus taniopus. But when we come to read his description of Equus taniopus, and to examine the figure of the same animal contained in the 28th volume of the ' Nova Acta' of the Leopoldino-Carolinian Academy, we find that the animal designated by this name is clearly not that of the Somali Coast, as it possesses a" well-marked dorsal stripe and a strongly defined cross-line over the shoulders. Moreover, Heuglin himself tells us that the specimen from which the description of A. taniopus was taken was a 1 I. e tbe specimen of Gazella walleri above referred to. 2 See Catalogue of Animals, 1883, p. 130; and P.Z.S. 1881, p. 734. |
