THE EXTINCT QUAGGA 259 



It was stated some years ago that zebras a short distance 

 off were absolutely invisible in bright moonlight, and I 

 have reason to believe that the same is to a great extent 

 the case in sunlight. For some reason or other the species 

 inhabiting the plains (not the mountains, be it observed) of 

 South Africa have tended to discard this striped coloration, 

 the southern race of Burchell's zebra exhibiting the first, and 

 the quagga the second stage in this transformation. In 

 North Africa the transformation has been carried a stage 

 farther, the wild asses of the Red Sea littoral having 

 discarded their stripes almost completely in favour of a 

 uniform grey or tawny livery. In this part of the continent 

 there is now no trace of a transitional form, whatever may 

 have been the case in the past, and we thus have the 

 sharp contrast between the uniformly coloured wild asses 

 of the coast of the Red Sea on the one hand, and the fully 

 striped zebras of Abyssinia and Southern Somaliland on 

 the other. 



Whether there is anything in the climatic and other 

 physical conditions of the plains of Cape Colony which 

 renders a partially striped species less conspicuous than one 

 in which the striping is fully developed, the disappearance of 

 the quagga makes it now impossible to determine. But 

 observation might advantageously be directed to the com- 

 parative invisibility, or otherwise, of the wild asses of the 

 Red Sea littoral and the fully striped zebras of the interior, 

 and whether this would be affected in any degree by the 

 transference of the one to the habitat of the other. What- 

 ever be the explanation, the fact remains that at the 

 opposite extremities of Africa some of the members of 

 the equine tribe have developed a tendency to the replace- 

 ment of a striped livery by one of a uniform and sober 

 hue, and that in the south of the continent this tendency 



