GIRAFFES, DEER, CAMELS, ZEBRAS, ASSES, AND HORSES
Here we reach a number of animals with which you have more or less
acquaintance, and about which you cannot fail to be interested in
hearing any particulars that we may be able to set down for you.
GIRAFFES
These are the tallest of all living animals, for a full-grown male may
stand eighteen or even nineteen feet in height. Just think of it! If one
elephant were to stand upon another elephant's back a giraffe could look
over them both.
This wonderful height is chiefly due to the great length of the neck.
Yet there are only seven _vertebræ_, or joints of the spine, in
that part of the body, just as there are in our own necks. But then each
of these joints may be as much as a foot long! When the animal is
hungry, its height is of very great use to it, enabling it to feed upon
the leaves of trees which do not throw out branches near the ground. And
in captivity, of course, its manger has to be put quite close to the
roof of its stable.
Strange to say, the giraffe plucks each leaf separately by means of its
tongue, which is very long indeed and very slender, and is prehensile at
the tip, like the tail of a spider-monkey. So it can be coiled round the
stem of a leaf in order to pull it from the branch. And sometimes at the
zoo you may see a giraffe snatch flowers out of ladies' hats and bonnets
by means of this curious tongue.
If a giraffe wants to feed upon grass instead of leaves, it straddles
its front legs very widely apart, and then bends its long neck down
between them. And it does just the same when it drinks.
The giraffe is a fast runner, and a horse must be very swift to overtake
it. It runs in a most singular manner, with "a queer camel-like gallop,"
and throwing out the hind legs with a semicircular movement, while its
long neck goes rocking backward and forward like that of a toy donkey,
and the long tail switches up and down as regularly as if it were moved
by clockwork. So a long line of giraffes all running away together must
look very odd indeed.
You would think that giraffes would be very easily seen, even in the
forest, wouldn't you? Yet every hunter tells us that as long as they are
standing still it is almost impossible to detect them, since they look
just like the stems and foliage of the trees, with the sunlight shining
in patches between the leaves!
Giraffes are found in various parts of Africa, south of the Sahara, and
two different varieties are known, that from South Africa being much the
darker of the two, and having the spots much larger and closer together.
A third kind, with five of the so-called horns on the head, has been
recorded by Sir Harry Johnston.
THE OKAPI
A still more remarkable discovery, made in the same forest district by
the same famous explorer, was that of the okapi, which is a very
singular animal. Perhaps we can best describe it to you by saying that
it is something like a giraffe, and something like an antelope, and
something like a zebra, and something like an ox! The color of its coat
is like that of a very red cow, there are zebra-like stripes on the fore
and hind quarters, and the legs are cream-colored, while on the skull
are faint traces of horns like those of the giraffe.
We do not as yet know much about the habits of this wonderful animal,
except that it lives in the thickest parts of the forest, seems to go
about in pairs, and to feed wholly on leaves and twigs.
THE DEER
In some ways these animals are not unlike antelopes. But one great
difference between the two is this. In the antelopes the horns are
hollow, growing upon bony cores which spring from the skull, and remain
all through the life of the animal. But in the deer they are solid, and
are thrown off every year, fresh ones growing in their places in the
course of four or five months. Then the material of which they are made
is altogether different, for whereas the horns of the antelopes really
consist of highly compressed hair, those of the deer are composed of
lime, and are very much more like bone. On account of these differences
horns of deer are better called antlers.
The way in which these antlers grow is very curious. For some little
time after they are shed the animal is extremely timid, for he knows
perfectly well that he has lost his natural weapons. So he hides away in
the thickest parts of the forest, where none of his enemies are likely
to find him. After a while, two little knobs make their appearance on
the head, just where the horns used to be. These knobs are covered with
a close furry skin, which is known as the velvet, and if you were to
take hold of them you would find that they were quite hot to the touch.
That is because the blood is coursing rapidly through them, and leaving
particles of lime behind it as it goes. Day by day they increase in
size, throwing out branches as they do so, until they are rather larger
than the pair which were cast off. Then the blood-vessels close up, and
the velvet becomes dry and begins to fall off, sometimes hanging down in
long strips, which are at last rubbed off against the trees and bushes.
REINDEER AND CARIBOU
A great many kinds of deer are found in different parts of the world,
perhaps the most famous of all being the reindeer.
This is the only deer in which the does possess horns as well as the
stags. It is found in the northern parts of Europe and Asia and also of
North America, where it is called the caribou and generally
lives in large herds. During the winter and spring these herds remain in
the forests. But in summer they are so annoyed by flies that they make
their way to the hills, ascending to such a height that their insect
enemies cannot follow them, and there they remain until the autumn. A
number of herds usually join together when they are migrating in this
way, and the appearance of thousands upon thousands of the animals
traveling slowly along, each with its antlers uplifted, has been
compared to that of a moving forest of leafless trees.
In Siberia, Lapland, and Norway, large herds of reindeer are kept as we
keep cattle, and are used as beasts both of draught and burden. A single
reindeer can carry a weight of about 130 pounds upon its back, or draw a
load of 190 pounds upon a sledge, and it so enduring that it will travel
at the rate of from eight to ten miles an hour for twelve hours
together.
"The caribou," says Mr. Ingersoll, "has never been utilized by any of
the people of arctic America, although just across Bering Strait the
same animal was kept in large herds by the Chuckchis of Siberia. The
United States government has attempted to repair this deficiency by
introducing large numbers of Lapp reindeer among the Alaskans, and the
experiment is proving successful." (See also page 173.)
During the summer reindeer can obtain plenty of food, but in the winter
they have to live upon a kind of white lichen, which grows in waste, dry
places. Very often, of course, this is covered with snow, which the
animals have to scrape away with their hoofs. But when a slight thaw is
followed by a frost they find it very difficult to do this, and
sometimes they actually perish from starvation.
The color of the reindeer varies slightly at different seasons of the
year, the coat usually being sooty brown in summer and brownish gray in
winter. The nose, neck, hind quarters, and lower parts of the body are
always white or whitish gray.
The people of Lapland, Finland, and Siberia have for a long time
domesticated reindeer, finding their flesh good to eat, and their hides,
horns, and sinews valuable for making clothing and implements of various
kinds. Their milk makes excellent cheese, which in those regions is an
important article of food.
THE ELK, OR MOOSE
The elk, which is found in the same parts of the world as the reindeer,
is a much larger animal. Indeed, it is the biggest of all living deer, a
full-grown stag standing well over six feet in height at the withers,
and sometimes weighing as much as twelve hundred pounds. It is not at
all a graceful creature, for the neck is very short, and the head is
held below the level of the shoulders, while the antlers are so
enormously large that it hardly seems possible that the animal should be
able to carry them.
One would think that when the elk was traveling through the forest these
huge antlers would be constantly getting entangled among the branches of
the trees. But the animal is able to throw them well back upon its
shoulders, so that they do not really interfere with its progress in the
least.
In America this animal is known as the moose, and is generally found in
small parties, consisting of a buck, a doe, and their fawns of two
seasons. During the summer they live near swamps or rivers, where there
is plenty of rich, long grass. But as soon as winter comes on they
retire to higher ground and spend the next few months in a small
clearing in the midst of the thickest forest. These clearings are
generally called moose-yards, and you might think, perhaps, that when a
hunter had discovered one he would have no difficulty in shooting the
animals. But they are so wary that it is almost impossible to approach
them, either by day or by night, and many a hunter has followed them for
weeks without obtaining a shot.
The Indians attract the moose within range by imitating the cry of the
doe, which they do so cleverly that if a buck is within hearing he is
sure to come up to the spot. Or they will rattle a moose's shoulder-bone
against the bark of a tree so as to make a sound like the call of the
buck, which any buck in the neighborhood is sure to take as a challenge
to fight. For these animals are very quarrelsome creatures, and wage
fierce battles with one another, sometimes using their antlers with such
effect that both combatants die from their wounds.
The deer family is so large that we must content ourselves with briefly
mentioning a few of its members. First we will speak of three of the Old
World deer, and of these as they are seen in Great Britain, whose
literature has so much to say of them.
[Illustration: THE ANTLERED DEER
1. Virginian, or White-tailed Deer. 2. East Indian Sambar.
3. Moose; European Elk. 4. East Indian Jungle Deer.
5. Roe Deer. 6. Wapiti; American Elk. 7. Caribou Reindeer.
(All are stags)]
THE RED DEER
This is the noblest object of the chase in Europe. The only part of
England in which it is now really wild is Exmoor, where it is still
quite plentiful. But in many parts of the Scottish Highlands it is
carefully preserved, large moorland districts being given up to it under
the title of deer forests.
When the female deer has a little fawn to take care of, she generally
hides it among very tall heather, pressing it gently with her nose to
make it lie down. There it will remain all day long without moving, till
she returns to it in the evening. But she is never very far away, and is
always ready to come at once to its aid if it should be attacked by a
fox or a wildcat.
The stag of this animal is a good deal larger than the doe, and may
stand as much as four feet high at the shoulder, while its antlers may
be more than three feet long. In color it is a bright reddish brown,
which often becomes a good deal paler during the winter.
THE FALLOW DEER
This deer is not nearly so big as the red deer. It is never more than
three feet in height, while you can also distinguish it by the fact that
the antlers are flattened out at the tip into a broad plate, and that
the coat is spotted with white.
This is the deer which is kept in so many English parks, where one may
often see a herd of a hundred or more of the pretty, graceful animals
moving about together.
There is always a "master" deer in each of these herds, who has won his
post by fighting and overcoming all his rivals. He does not always
remain with the herd, but often lives apart for weeks together,
accompanied, perhaps, by three or four favorite does; and in his absence
the herd is led by some of the younger bucks. But whenever he makes his
appearance these make way for him, and no one disputes his sway until he
becomes too old and infirm to hold his position any longer.
The male fallow deer is known by different names at different times of
his life. In the first year he is called a "fawn," in the second year a
"pricket," in the third a "sorrel," and in the fourth a "soare," while
when he is five years old he is described as a "buck of the first lead,"
and when he is six as a "buck complete."
THE ROEBUCK
This is quite a small animal, seldom exceeding twenty-six inches in
height at the shoulder. In color it is reddish or grayish brown above
and grayish white underneath, with a white patch on the chin and another
round the root of the tail. The antlers stand nearly upright, and throw
off one "tine," or spur, in front, and two more behind.
There is only one part of England where the roebuck is found wild, and
that is Blackmoor Vale, in Dorsetshire. But it is common in many of the
Scottish moors and forests. It is never seen in herds, like the fallow
deer, but goes about in pairs, although when there are fawns they
accompany their parents.
The roebuck sheds its antlers in December, and the new ones are fully
developed by about the end of February. Although they are seldom more
than eight or nine inches long they are really formidable weapons, more
especially as the deer is very powerful in proportion to its size. The
bucks are very quarrelsome creatures and fight most savagely with one
another, while more than once they have been known to attack human
beings and to inflict severe wounds before they could be driven away.
AMERICAN DEER
Excepting the moose, caribou, and wapiti, often wrongly called an elk,
found in the western United States and some parts of Canada, the deer of
North and South America stand quite apart from those of the Old
World, and are placed in a genus of their own. Usually the tail is long,
and the brow-antler is always wanting. The most familiar species is the
common American deer, of which the Virginia or white-tailed deer is the
type. This deer is found in varying forms in both continents, and was
regularly hunted by the ancient Mexicans with trained pumas.
The well-known Virginia deer found in Eastern North America, and
believed to range as far south as Louisiana, stands a trifle over three
feet in height, and weighs, clean, about one hundred and seventy-five
pounds. The coloration is chestnut in summer, bluish gray in winter. The
antlers are of good size, and usually measure from twenty to twenty-four
inches in length. As a sporting animal the white-tailed deer is not
popular. It has been described as "an exasperating little beast,"
possessing every quality which a deer ought not to, from the sportsman's
point of view. "His haunts are river-bottoms, in choking, blinding bush,
and his habits are beastly. No one could ever expect to stalk a
white-tail; if you want to get one, you must crawl." Mr. Selous bagged
one of these deer somewhat curiously. "He was coming," he writes,
"through the scrubby, rather open bush straight toward me in a series of
great leaps, rising, I think, quite four feet from the ground at every
bound. I stood absolutely still, thinking to fire at him just as he
jumped the stream and passed me. However, he came so straight to me
that, had he held his course, he must have jumped on to or over me. But
when little more than the width of the stream separated us--when he was
certainly not more than ten yards from me--he either saw or winded me,
and, without a moment's halt, made a prodigious leap sideways. I fired
at him when he was in the air, and I believe quite six feet above the
ground." The deer, an old buck with a good head, was afterward picked up
dead. In different parts of America, as far south as Peru and Bolivia,
various local races of this deer are to be found.
THE MULE-DEER
The mule-deer is found in most parts of North America west of the
Missouri, as far south as Southern California, stands about
three feet four inches at the shoulder, and weighs over two hundred and
forty pounds. It carries good antlers, measuring as much as thirty
inches, and in color is tawny red in summer, brownish gray in winter. It
is a far better sporting animal than the sneaking white-tailed deer, and
affords excellent stalking. This deer is still abundant in many
localities. It is commonly called "blacktail," but the true blacktail is
a similar but smaller species confined to the Northern Pacific coast.
THE WAPITI
This is the largest and finest of American deer, originally numerous
everywhere west of the Appalachian Mountains, but now to be found only
in the mountains of the Northwest. It is much like the European red
deer, but very much larger, and is connected with it by a series of
stags, known as the maral, shou, etc., inhabiting Central Asia from
Persia to Kamchatka. It grazes like cattle, rather than browses; and in
the fall gathers into herds, which formerly contained many thousands and
spent the winter among sheltering hills.
MARSH-DEER
In South America are to be found several kinds of marsh-deer, of which
the best known has its range from Brazil to the forest country of the
Argentine Republic. The marsh-deer is almost equal in size to the red
deer of Europe, but somewhat less stout of build; the coloring is bright
chestnut in summer, brown in winter; the coat is long and coarse, as
befits a swamp-loving creature; the antlers usually display ten points,
and measure more than twenty inches.
THE PAMPAS-DEER
This species, closely allied to the marsh-deer, is of small size,
standing about two feet six inches at the shoulder. The antlers, usually
three-pointed, measure no more than from twelve to fourteen inches in
fine specimens. The pampas-deer is found from Brazil to Northern
Patagonia.
PERUVIAN AND CHILEAN GUEMALS
These are small deer, found on the high Andes, and are somewhat inferior
in size to the Virginia deer. The males carry simple antlers forming a
single fork, and measuring about nine inches. The coat, yellowish brown
in hue, is coarse, thick, and brittle. The Chilean guemal is found also
in most parts of Patagonia; unlike the guemal of Peru, which delights in
altitudes of from 14,000 to 16,000 feet, it lives chiefly in deep
valleys, thick forest, and even the adjacent plains, to which it resorts
in winter.
BROCKETS
Of these, several species are found in South and Central America and
Trinidad. They are small deer, having spike-like antlers and tufted
crowns. The largest is the red brocket, found in Guiana, Brazil, and
Paraguay, which stands twenty-seven inches at the shoulder. The body
coloring is brownish red. Like most of the group, this brocket is
extremely shy; but although fond of dense covert, it is found also in
open patches. The pygmy brocket, a tiny dark-brown deerlet, less than
nineteen inches in height, found in Central Brazil, is the smallest of
these very small deer.
PUDUS
Two other diminutive deer, known as pudus, closely allied to the
brockets, are found in South America. These are the Chilean and Ecuador
pudus, of which the former is only about thirteen inches in height, the
latter about fourteen or fifteen inches. Little is known of the history
and life habits of these charming little creatures, one of which, the
Chilean species, has occasionally been seen in zoölogical gardens.
CAMELS
We now come to a remarkably interesting animal. First let us tell you
how wonderfully the camel is suited to a life in the desert.
[Illustration: CHILDREN'S PETS AT THE ZOO.
1. Guanaco and Young. 2. Dorcas Gazelle.
3. Bactrian Riding Camel.]
In the first place, it has great spreading feet. Now this is very
important, for if the animal had small, hard hoofs, like those of the
horse or the donkey, it would sink deeply into the loose sand at every
step, and would soon be so tired out that it would be quite unable to
travel any farther. But its broad, splay, cushion-like toes do not sink
into the sand at all, and it can march easily along, hour after hour,
where a horse could scarcely travel a mile.
Then it can go for several weeks with hardly any food. All that it finds
as it journeys through the desert is a mouthful or two of dry thorns,
and even at the end of the day its master has nothing to give it but a
few dates. And on this meager diet it has to travel forty or fifty miles
a day with a heavy load on its back.
But then, you must remember, the camel has a hump. Now this hump
consists almost entirely of fat, and as the animal marches on day after
day with scarcely any food, this fat passes back by degrees into its
system, and actually serves as nourishment. So, you see, while the camel
is traveling through the desert it really lives chiefly on its own hump!
By the time that it reaches its journey's end, the hump has almost
entirely disappeared. Little more is left in its place than a loose bag
of empty skin. The animal is then unfit for work and has to be allowed
to graze for two or three weeks in a rich pasture. Then, day by day, the
hump fills out again, and when it is firm and solid once more the camel
is fit for another journey.
More wonderful still, perhaps, is its way of carrying enough water about
with it to last for several days.
Except the camel, typical ruminating animals, or those which chew the
cud, have the stomach divided into four separate compartments, through
which the food passes in turn. These are called the paunch, the
honeycomb stomach or bag, the manyplies and the abomasum. In the camel
the third of these is wanting, and the first and second are provided
with a number of deep cells, which can be opened or closed at the will
of the animal.
In these cells the animal is able to store up water. When it has the
opportunity of drinking, it not only quenches its thirst, but fills up
all these cells as well. In this way it can store up quite a gallon and
a half of liquid. Then, when it grows thirsty, and cannot find a pool or
a stream, all that it has to do is to open one or two of the cells and
allow the contents to flow out, and so on from time to time until the
whole supply is exhausted.
In this way a camel can easily go for five or six days without requiring
to drink, even when marching under the burning sun of the desert.
Two kinds of camels are known, neither of which is now found in a wild
state.
ARABIAN CAMEL
The first of these is the Arabian camel, which only has one hump on its
back, and is so well known that there is no need to describe it. It is
very largely used in many parts of Africa and Asia as a beast of both
draught and burden. Camels for riding upon, however, are generally
called dromedaries, and may be regarded as a separate breed, just as
hunters are a separate breed from cart-horses. And while they will
travel with a rider upon their backs at a pace of eight or nine miles an
hour, an ordinary camel with a load upon its back will scarcely cover a
third of that distance in the same time.
This camel is a bad-tempered animal. It gets very cross when it is made
to kneel down to be loaded, and crosser still when it has to kneel again
in the evening for its burden to be removed, and all day it goes
grunting and snarling and groaning along, ready to bite any one who may
come near it. And it is so stupid that if it wanders off the path for a
yard or two, in order to nibble at a tempting patch of herbage, it goes
straight on in the new direction, without ever thinking of turning back
in order to regain the road.
Besides being used for riding and for carrying loads, the camel is
valuable on account of its flesh and also of its milk, while its hair is
woven into a kind of coarse cloth.
BACTRIAN CAMEL
This camel, which comes from Central Asia, has two humps on its back
instead of one. It is not quite so tall as the Arabian animal, and is
more stoutly and strongly built, while its hair is much longer and more
shaggy. For these reasons it is very useful in rocky and hilly country,
for it can scramble about for hours on steep and stony ground without
getting tired, while its thick coat protects it from the cold.
LLAMAS
Llamas may be described as South American camels. But they are much
smaller than the true camels, and have no humps on their backs, and
their feet are not nearly so broad and cushion-like, while their thick
woolly coat grows in dense masses, which sometimes reach almost to the
ground.
There are four kinds of llamas, but we can only tell you about one of
them, the guanaco.
This animal lives both among the mountains and in the plains. It is
generally found in flocks, consisting of a single male and from twelve
to fifteen females. But sometimes the flocks are much larger, and more
than once several hundred animals have been seen together. The male
always keeps behind the flock, and if he notices any sign of danger he
utters a curious whistling cry. The does know exactly what this means
and at once take to flight, while the male follows, stopping every now
and then to look back and see if they are being pursued.
Usually, when two male guanacos meet, they fight, biting one another
most savagely, and squealing loudly with rage. When one of these animals
is killed, its skin is likely to be found deeply scored by the wounds it
has received from its numerous antagonists.
If you go to look at the llamas in a zoo, we would advise you not to
stand too near the bars of their enclosure, for they have a habit of
spitting straight into one's face! When they are used for riding they
will often turn their heads round and spit at their rider, just to show
that they are getting tired. And if once they lie down no amount of
persuasion or even of beating will make them get up again, until they
consider that they have had a proper rest!
ZEBRAS
There are three different kinds of these beautiful animals. The largest
and finest is known as Grévy's zebra, which is found in the mountains of
Somaliland. It has many more stripes than the other two, while the
ground color is quite white. The smallest is the mountain zebra, which
is only about as big as a good-sized pony, and has its legs striped
right down to the hoofs. This is now a very scarce animal, being only
found in one or two mountainous districts in South Africa, where no one
is allowed to interfere with it. And between the two is the Burchell's
zebra, which is about as large as a small horse, and has its legs white,
with only a very few markings. This animal is quite common in many parts
of the South African plains, and has often been domesticated, and taught
to draw carriages and carts. Indeed, in some districts of Southern
Africa, a coach drawn by a team of zebras instead of horses is not a
very uncommon sight.
You would think that an animal, colored like the zebra would be very
easily seen, even by night, wouldn't you? But strange to say, these
creatures are almost invisible from a distance of even a few yards.
Indeed, hunters say that they have often been so close to a zebra at
night that they could hear him breathing, yet have been quite unable to
see him!
This seems to be due to his stripes, for it has been found that while a
pony can be easily seen from forty or fifty yards away on a moonlight
night, it at once becomes invisible if it is clothed with ribbons in
such a way as to resemble the stripes of the zebra!
Zebras are generally found in herds, and they have a curious habit of
traveling about in company with a number of brindled gnus and ostriches,
which all seem to be as friendly as possible together.
THE QUAGGA
The quagga, which became extinct some time ago, never had a very
extended range, but once it existed in great numbers on all the upland
plains of Cape Colony to the west of the Kei River, and in the open
treeless country lying between the Orange and Vaal rivers. North of the
Vaal it appears to have been unknown.
The quagga seems to have been nearly allied to Burchell's
zebra--especially to the most southerly form of that species--but was
much darker in general color. Instead of being striped over the whole
body, it was only strongly banded on the head and neck, the dark brown
stripes becoming fainter on the shoulders and dying away in spots and
blotches. On the other hand, in size and build, in the appearance of its
mane, ears, and tail, and in general habits, it seems to have nearly
resembled its handsomer relative. The barking neigh "qua-ha-ha,
qua-ha-ha" seems, too, to have been the same in both species. The
Dutch word quagga is pronounced in South Africa "qua-ha" and is of
Hottentot origin, an imitation of the animal's neighing call. To-day
Burchell's zebras are invariably called qua-has by both Boers and
British colonists.
WILD ASSES
The true asses are without stripes on the head, neck, and body, with the
exception of a dark streak down the back from the mane to the tail,
which is present in all members of the group, and in some cases a dark
band across the shoulders and irregular markings on the legs.
In Africa the wild ass is only found in the desert regions of the
northeastern portion of that continent. It is a fine animal, standing
between thirteen and fourteen hands at the shoulder. It lives in small
herds or families of four or five individuals, and is not found in
mountainous districts, but frequents low stony hills and arid desert
wastes. It is as a general rule an alert animal and difficult to
approach, and so fleet and enduring that excepting in the case of foals
and mares heavy in young, it cannot be overtaken even by a well-mounted
horseman. Notwithstanding the scanty nature of the herbage in the
districts they frequent, these desert-bred asses are always in good
condition. They travel long distances to water at night, but appear to
require to drink regularly. Their flesh is eaten by the natives of the
Soudan. The bray of the African wild ass, it is said, cannot easily be
distinguished from that of the domesticated animal, which is undoubtedly
descended from this breed.
In Asia three varieties of the wild ass are found, which were formerly
believed to represent three distinct species; but all the local races of
the Asiatic wild ass are now considered to belong to one species, and it
is to them that reference is made in the description on pages 196 and
197.
These wild asses have a wide range, and are met with from Syria to
Persia and Western India, and northward throughout the more arid
portions of Central Asia. Like their African relatives, the wild asses
of Asia are inhabitants of waste places, frequenting desert plains and
wind-swept steppes. They are said to be as fleet and enduring as the
others.
The wild asses of the desert plains of India and Persia are said to be
very wary and difficult to approach, but the kiang of Tibet is always
spoken of as a much more confiding animal, its curiosity being so great
that it will frequently approach to within a short distance of any
unfamiliar object, such as a sportsman, engaged in stalking other game.
Asiatic wild asses usually live in small families of four or five, but
sometimes congregate in herds. Their food consists of various grasses in
the low-lying portions of their range, but of woody plants on the high
plateaus, where little else is to be obtained. Of wild asses in general
the late Sir Samuel Baker once said: "Those who have seen donkeys only
in their civilized state can have no conception of the wild or original
animal; it is the perfection of activity and courage."
THE HORSE
Like the wild camels, genuine wild horses are very generally believed to
be extinct. The vast herds which occur to-day in a wild state in
Europe, America, and Australia are to be regarded, say those who believe
in the extinction theory, as descended from domesticated animals which
have run wild. So far as the American and Australian horses are
concerned, this is no doubt true; but of the European stocks it is by no
means so certain. However, without giving you any theory of our own, we
will quote at some length from an interesting and instructive chapter on
the horse by A. B. Buckley.
"There rose before my mind the level grass-covered pampas of South
America, where wild horses share the boundless plains with troops of the
rhea, or American ostrich, and wander, each horse with as many mares as
he can collect, in companies of hundreds or even thousands in a troop.
These horses are now truly wild, and live freely from youth to age,
unless they are unfortunate enough to be caught in the more inhabited
regions by the lasso of the hunter. In the broad pampas, the home of
herds of wild cattle, they dread nothing. There, as they roam with one
bold stallion as their leader, even beasts of prey hesitate to approach
them, for, when they form into a dense mass with the mothers and young
in their center, their heels deal blows which even the fierce jaguar
does not care to encounter, and they trample their enemy to death in a
very short time. Yet these are not the original wild horses; they are
the descendants of tame animals, brought from Europe by the Spaniards to
Buenos Aires in 1535, whose descendants have regained their freedom on
the boundless pampas and prairies.
"As I was picturing them careering over the plains, another scene
presented itself and took their place. Now I no longer saw around me
tall pampas-grass with the long necks of the rheas appearing above it,
for I was on the edge of a dreary, scantily covered plain between the
Aral Sea and the Balkash Lake in Tartary. To the south lies a barren
sandy desert, to the north the fertile plains of the Kirghiz steppes,
where the Tartar feeds his flocks, and herds of antelopes gallop over
the fresh green pasture; and between these is a kind of no-man's land,
where low scanty shrubs and stunted grass seem to promise but a poor
feeding-ground.
"Yet here the small long-legged but powerful tarpans, the wild horses
of the treeless plains of Russia and Tartary, were picking their morning
meal. Sturdy wicked little fellows they are, with their shaggy
light-brown coats, short wiry manes, erect ears, and fiery watchful
eyes. They might well be supposed to be true wild horses, whose
ancestors had never been tamed by man; and yet it is more probable that
even they escaped in early times from the Tartars, and have held their
own ever since, over the grassy steppes of Russia and on the confines of
the plains of Tartary. Sometimes they live almost alone, especially on
the barren wastes where they have been seen in winter, scraping the snow
off the herbage. At other times, as in the south of Russia, where they
wander between the Dnieper and the Don, they gather in vast herds and
live a free life, not fearing even the wolves, which they beat to the
ground with their hoofs. From one green oasis to another they travel
over miles of ground.
'A thousand horse--and none to ride!
With flowing tail and flying mane,
Wide nostrils--never stretched by pain,
Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein,
And feet that iron never shod,
And flanks unscarred by spur or rod,
A thousand horse, the wild, the free,
Like waves that follow o'er the sea.'[A]
[A] Byron's "Mazeppa."
"As I followed them in their course I fancied I saw troops of yet
another animal of the horse tribe, the kulan, or _Equus hemionus_,
which is a kind of half horse, half ass, living on the Kirghiz steppes
of Tartary and spreading far beyond the range of the tarpan into Tibet.
Here at last we have a truly wild animal, never probably brought into
subjection by man. The number of names he possesses shows how widely he
has spread. The Tartars call him kulan, the Tibetans kiang, while the
Mongolians give him the unpronounceable name of dschiggetai. He will not
submit to any of them, but if caught and confined soon breaks away again
to his old life, a 'free and fetterless creature.'
[Illustration: WILD RELATIVES OF THE HORSE.
1. Northern or Grévy's Zebra. 2. Abyssinian Ass.
3. Southern (or Burchell's) Zebra. 4. Przwalsky's Central-Asian Horse.]
"No one has ever yet settled the question whether he is a horse or an
ass, probably because he represents an animal truly between the two. His
head is graceful, his body light, his legs slender and fleet, yet his
ears are long and ass-like; he has narrow hoofs, and a tail with a tuft
at the end like all the ass tribe; his color is a yellow brown, and he
has a short dark mane and a long dark stripe down his back as a donkey
has. Living often on the high plateaus, sometimes as much as fifteen
hundred feet above the sea, this 'child of the steppes' travels in large
companies even as far as the rich meadows of Central Asia; in summer
wandering in green pastures, and in winter seeking the hunger-steppes
where sturdy plants grow. And when Autumn comes the young steeds go off
alone to the mountain heights to survey the country around and call
wildly for mates, whom, when found, they will keep close to them through
all the next year, even though they mingle with thousands of others.
"Till recent years the _Equus hemionus_ was the only truly wild
horse known, but in the winter of 1879-80 the Russian traveler
Przhevalsky brought back from Central Asia a much more horse-like
animal, called by the Tartars kertag, and by the Mongols statur. It is a
clumsy, thick-set, whitish-gray creature with strong legs and a large,
heavy, reddish-colored head; its legs have a red tint down to the knees,
beyond which they are blackish down to the hoofs. But the ears are
small, and it has the broad hoofs of the true horse, and warts on the
hind legs, which no animal of the ass tribe has. This horse, like the
kiang, travels in small troops of from five to fifteen, led through the
wildest parts of the Dsungarian desert, between the Altai and Tian-Shan
Mountains, by an old stallion. They are extremely shy, and see, hear,
and smell very quickly, so that they are off like lightning whenever
anything approaches them.
"So having traveled over America, Europe, and Asia, was my quest ended?
No; for from the dreary Asiatic deserts my thoughts wandered to a far
warmer and more fertile land, where between the Blue Nile and the Red
Sea rise the lofty highlands of Abyssinia, among which the African wild
ass, the probable ancestor of our donkeys, feeds in troops on the rich
grasses of the slopes, and then onward to the bank of a river in Central
Africa where on the edge of a forest, with rich pastures beyond,
elephants and rhinoceroses, antelopes and buffaloes, lions and hyenas,
creep down in the cool of the evening to slake their thirst in the
flowing stream. There I saw the herds of zebras in all their striped
beauty coming down from the mountain regions to the north, and mingling
with the darker-colored but graceful quaggas from the southern plains,
and I half grieved at the thought how these untamed and free rovers are
being slowly but surely surrounded by man closing in upon them on every
side.
"I might now have traveled still farther in search of the onager, or
wild ass of the Asiatic and Indian deserts, but at this point a more
interesting and far wider question presented itself, as I flung myself
down on the moor to ponder over the early history of all these tribes.
"Where have they all come from? Where shall we look for the =first=
ancestors of these wild and graceful animals? For the answer to this
question I had to travel back to America, to those Western United States
where Professor Marsh has made such grand discoveries in horse history.
For there, in the very country where horses were supposed never to have
been before the Spaniards brought them a few centuries ago, we have now
found the true birthplace of the equine race.
"Come back with me to a time so remote that we cannot measure it even by
hundred of thousands of years, and let us visit the territories of Utah
and Wyoming. Those highlands were very different then from what they are
now. Just risen out of the seas of the Cretaceous Period, they were then
clothed with dense forests of palms, tree-ferns, and screw-pines,
magnolias and laurels, interspersed with wide-spreading lakes, on the
margins of which strange and curious animals fed and flourished. There
were large beasts with teeth like the tapir and the bear, and feet like
the elephant; and others far more dangerous, half bear, half hyena,
prowling around to attack the clumsy paleotherium or the anoplotherium,
something between a rhinoceros and a horse, which grazed by the
waterside, while graceful antelopes fed on the rich grass. And among
these were some little animals no bigger than foxes, with four toes and
a splint for the fifth, on their front feet, and three toes on the hind
ones.
"These clumsy little animals, whose bones have been found in the rocks
of Utah and Wyoming, have been called _Eohippus_, or horse of the
dawn, by naturalists. They were animals with real toes, yet their bones
and teeth show that they belonged to the horse tribe, and already the
fifth toe common to most other toed animals was beginning to disappear.
"This was in the Eocene Period, and before it passed away with its
screw-pines and tree-ferns, another rather larger animal, called
_Orohippus_, had taken the place of the small one, and he had only
four toes on his front feet. The splint had disappeared, and as time
went on still other animals followed, always with fewer toes, while they
gained slender fleet legs, together with an increase in size and in
gracefulness. First one as large as a sheep (_Mesohippus_) had only
three toes and a splint. Then the splint again disappeared, and one
large and two dwindling toes only remained, till finally these two
became mere splints, leaving one large toe or hoof with almost
imperceptible splints, which may be seen on the fetlock of a horse's
skeleton.
"You must notice that a horse's foot really begins at the point which we
call his knee in the front legs, and at his hock in his hind legs. His
true knee and elbow are close up to the body. What we call his foot or
hoof is really the end of the strong, broad, middle toe covered with a
hoof, and farther up his foot we can feel two small splints, which are
remains of two other toes.
"Meanwhile, during these long succeeding ages while the foot was
lengthening out into a slender limb, the animals became larger, more
powerful, and more swift, the neck and head became longer and more
graceful, the brain-case larger in front, and the teeth decreased in
number, so that there is now a large gap between the biting teeth and
the grinding teeth of a horse. Their slender limbs too became more
flexible and fit for running and galloping, till we find the whole
skeleton the same in shape, though not in size, as in our own horses and
asses now.
"They did not, however, during all this time remain confined to America,
for, from the time when they arrived at an animal called
_Miohippus_, or lesser horse, which came after _Mesohippus_
and had only three toes on each foot, we find their remains in Europe,
where they lived in company with the giraffes, opossums, and monkeys
which roamed over these parts in those ancient times. Then a little
later we find them in Africa and India; so that the horse tribe,
represented by creatures about as large as donkeys, had spread far and
wide over the world.
"And now, curiously enough, they began to forsake, or to die out in, the
land of their birth. Why they did so we do not know; but while in the
old world as asses, quaggas, and zebras, and probably horses, they
flourished in Asia, Europe, and Africa, they certainly died out in
America, so that ages afterward, when that land was discovered, no
animal of the horse tribe was found in it.
"And the true horse, where did he arise? Born and bred probably in
Central Asia from some animal like the kulan, or the kertag, he proved
too useful to savage tribes to be allowed his freedom, and it is
doubtful whether in any part of the world he escaped subjection. In
England he probably roamed as a wild animal till the savages, who fed
upon him, learned in time to put him to work; and when the Romans came
they found the Britons with fine and well-trained horses.
"Yet though tamed and made to know his master, he has, as we have seen,
broken loose again in almost all parts of the world--in America on the
prairies and pampas, in Europe and Asia on the steppes, and in Australia
in the bush. And even in Great Britain, where so few patches of
uncultivated land still remain, the young colts of Dartmoor, Exmoor, and
Shetland, though born of domesticated mothers, seem to assert their
descent from wild and free ancestors as they throw out their heels and
toss up their heads with a shrill neigh, and fly against the wind with
streaming manes and outstretched tails as the kulan, the tarpan, and the
zebra do in the wild desert or grassy plain."