688 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



The highland quagga of British East Africa was described 

 as a distinct race in 1896 by DeWinton, from specimens col- 

 lected near the Thika River by Doctor J. W. Gregory, who 

 has given us an account of his journey in *'The Great Rift 

 Valley." In the original description, which is very brief, 

 DeWinton makes no allusion to his use of Grant's name for 

 this race. He has named the race, without doubt, for Colonel 

 Grant of the Speke and Grant expedition, who mentions 

 the zebra in his notes in the natural history account of the 

 expedition, published in 1872, where he calls attention to 

 the color differences between this race and the typical 

 Burchell zebra of South Africa. Sportsmen, however, 

 seem to be very uncertain as to the distinctness of this 

 race from those found south of the Zambesi River and often 

 refer to the East African race as "Chapman's." They have, 

 no doubt, been led to this course by the occasional presence 

 of faint shadow stripes in specimens which in this respect 

 resemble the Chapman zebra. Although shadow stripes 

 are occasionally present on the hind quarters in specimens 

 from British East Africa, the absence of such stripes is much 

 more common and must be accepted as one of the char- 

 acters of the highland race known to naturalists as Equus 

 quagga granti. Other characters for the race in compari- 

 son with South African forms are the great width of the 

 dark stripes on the hind quarters, the whiteness of the light 

 stripes, and the fully striped character of the legs. The 

 stripes are especially numerous on the pasterns above the 

 hoofs, where they unite to form a wide black band covering 

 nearly the whole pastern region. The quagga zebra, com- 

 monly known as the Burchell zebra, covers a great expanse 

 of territory in East Africa, as well as a great altitudinal 

 range, and is consequently subject to great diversity of 

 climatic conditions. Nevertheless, they show almost no 

 color changes which agree with difference in environment. 

 This is in marked contrast to their color behavior in South 

 Africa as well as to the color behavior of the Grant gazelle, 

 giraffe, and a host of other species with which they are in- 

 timately associated in East Africa and which exhibit well- 

 marked geographical differences in color over the same 

 area. The zebra affords us a striking example of how 

 independently species react to environment and how ob- 



