ADDITIONAL SPECIES OF TllK GENUS KQUtJS. 81 



Art. V — Notice of sorne additional species of the genus Equus, 



to those currently admitted by Zoologists. By Edward Blyth, 



Ksq. 

 It is to be lamented that since the establishment of periodi- 

 cals exclusively devoted to particular departments of scientific 

 enquiry, some systematic record has not been regularly pub- 

 lished, of the scattered items of information which inciden- 

 tally but continually appear in the narratives of travellers, 

 and in other works of a general character. Valuable hints 

 are frequently lost, or perhaps only met with when their uti- 

 lity in promoting investigation shall have been superseded, 

 by the fortuitous re-discovery of the facts long previously in- 

 dicated, and which might have been sought for and re-ascer- 

 tained much earlier, had some such record been adopted. — 

 Quotations of short passages, and references to such as are 

 less conveniently transferrible, would unquestionably, in pro- 

 portion as they keep pace with the progress of publication, 

 and are extracted from works unlikely to pass into the hands 

 of the class which they most concern, exert a highly benefi- 

 cial influence on the progress of knowledge, and would obvi- 

 ate the tiresome necessity now imposed upon those who hap- 

 pen to be engaged on any particular science, of wading through 

 volume after volume in pursuit of casual observations. 



This idea has just forcibly occurred to me, on looking over 

 ray memoranda for some details on the species of Equus, 

 which are probably much more numerous than is cun-ently 

 supposed, as the following extracts will show. Six species 

 only are admitted by Cuvier, or four besides the horse and ass, 

 which latter I need not here treat of Three of them are well- 

 known inhabitants of South Africa, remarkable for their striped 

 skins ; viz. — 



1. The Quagga [Eqrius quagga, Gmelin), so named from 

 its barking voice, and at one time supposed to be the female 

 zebra. It is termed " Wild Horse " in the Cape colony, and 

 is indeed the most horse-like, in figure and action, of all the 

 species with callosities on the fore-limbs only, though still 

 essentially asinine in its details. The head and ears are re- 

 markably like those of a horse ; and it has stripes on the neck, 

 hind-head, and fore-part of the body only, becoming obsolete 

 behind. This animal has not been observed northward of the 

 Gariep river, and associates very much with the common or 

 white-tailed gnoo. Some years ago a pair of them were 

 frequently seen drawing a cin-ricle about the parks of London. 



Vol. IV.— No. 3S. n. s. k 



