ZEBRA, QUAGGA, ASS 29 



intense is the light in his native pasture that 

 even the refracted glow from the ground has 

 had to be met by dark colouring of the under 

 surfaces, wherein he differs from the horses of 

 higher latitudes. 



Zebra and Quagga. Southward from the 

 great Desert the forest of Equatorial Africa is 

 bordered to the eastward and the south by 

 grass lands. In these a few patches of jungle 

 and tussock grasses have preserved the colour- 

 ing of striped horses down to our own time. 

 Their painting is most brilliant towards the 

 Equator, fades in the higher latitudes, and in 

 Cape Colony only the neck and shoulder 

 stripes remained in the Quagga breed. The 

 land does not continue into the latitude of the 

 Dun horse. It is quite possible that with the 

 coming of the Boers tame cattle ate off the 

 Quagga pasturage, but rifles have put the wild 

 stock to an end with the advance of human 

 settlement. 



The Asses. These creatures of moun- 

 tainous deserts are coloured like the boulders 

 of a hillside, but rely for their safety rather on 

 high intelligence and sure-footed speed. Being 

 desert animals of course they are dry inside, so 

 that their efforts to produce the most beautiful 

 music merely rub leather against leather like 



