l6o NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



great demand as a collar for the war horses of the 

 chiefs on state days.^ In reviewing the evidence 

 of Ludolph and Salt, it must be plain to anyone 

 that the Zecora of the Arabs was identical with 

 Grevy's zebra, and not with the mountain zebra, 

 which is quite a distinct animal, unknown north of 

 the Equator. 



In spite, however, of these vague hints and 

 brief accounts of the existence of the Zecora, this 

 magnificent beast remained unknown to scientific 

 Europe till 1882, when a specimen was sent alive 

 to France by Menelek (then King of Shoa) as a 

 gift to the President of the Republic. On arriving 

 in Paris, the new animal was placed in the 

 menagerie of the Jardin des Plantes, where it 

 was at once recognised as new by the late 

 M. Alphonse Milne Edwards, who gave it the 

 name of Equus grevyi. The zebra was sent to 

 Europe in the warmest part of the year, but soon 

 died of inflammation of the lungs, though not 

 before its appearance in life had been recorded by 

 the camera. Unfortunately, the animal having 

 been photographed with its muzzle in a bucket, 

 the characteristic elongation of the face was not 

 shown in the print. The dead zebra was stuffed 

 for exhibition in the Gallery of the Natural 

 History Museum, in the Jardin des Plantes : 



1 The Angoni tribesmen of British Central Africa are said to 

 employ the mane of BurchdVs zebra as a head-dress when on the 

 war path. 



