Their tail is not large and broad, but sharp and pointed; nor do they build houses, or construct dams across the stream, but live in the banks, making themselves large chambers above the ordinary level of the floods, which are entered by holes beneath the water-line.
The rarest of all the animals which are still found in Assyria is the wild ass (_Equus hemionous_).

Till the present generation of travellers, it was believed to have disappeared altogether from the region, and to have "retired into the steppes of Mongolia and the deserts of Persia.
But a better acquaintance with the country between the rivers has shown that wild asses, though uncommon, still inhabit the tract where, they were seen by Xenophon." [PLATE XXVI., Fig.

1.] They are delicately made, in color varying from a grayish-white in winter to a bright bay, approaching to pink, in the summer-time; they are said to be remarkably swift.

It is impossible to take them when full grown; but the Arabs often capture the foals, and bring them up with milk in their tents.
They then become very playful and docile; but it is found difficult to keep them alive; and they have never, apparently, been domesticated.

The Arabs usually kill them and eat their flesh.
[Illustration: PLATE 26] It is probable that all these animals, and some others, inhabited Assyria during the time of the Empire.