THE TRUE QUAGGA I 79 



persons to suppose that Equus quagga is not after 

 all extinct.^ Unfortunately all reports of the 

 existence of "that rare animal the quagga," 

 published in later years, turn out on investigation 

 to refer to some species of zebra : the subject of 

 this essay is as extinct as the dodo.^ 



The extermination of the quagga is all the 

 more to be regretted because it seems possible 

 that it might have been systematically broken in 

 to bit and harness like a horse, or indeed like its 

 near relative the Burchell zebra during the last 

 ten years. The first example which Sparrman 

 noticed was a very tame specimen, pleased when 

 anyone stroked its sleek sides and delighting 

 to be caressed. On a subsequent occasion the 

 doctor actually saw a quagga driven in the street 

 harnessed with five horses : and with a rare fore- 



1 One gentleman, writing as late as some five years ago to the 

 scientific papers, to "correct" the assertion that the true quagga 

 had been exterminated, observed that at the moment of 

 writing a dead quagga (or its freshly stripped hide) lay outside the 

 house. After the Boer custom of calling zebras "quaggas" had 

 been pointed out to him, nothing more was heard of this "proof" of 

 .survival. Even in August, 1900, a tradition was current at Port 

 Elizabeth that the true quagga was still preserved on a single farm in 

 the north-west of Cape Colony : perhaps the animal had been 

 confused with the black wildebeest under private protection in Victoria 

 West. Any enthusiast wishing to investigate the truth of this 

 rumour is welcome to attempt it : one can prophesy the result 

 beforehand ! 



2 See also my letter to the Field of June 11, 1904. It may be 

 mentioned that tlie name "quagga" being derived from the cry of 

 the animal, should be pronounced kwa-ha (Boer fashion), not 

 " kwagger," as is invariably done by naturalists in this country. I 

 remember, when inquiring some three years ago for the specimen of 

 this animal preserved in the Museum of the Amsterdam Zoological 

 Society, the Dutch attendant did not recognise the name as rendered 

 in English fashion. On my pointing out the sjjecimen in its glass 

 case, he at once recognised it, and pronounced its name " Kwa-ha." 



