170 



THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



Grevy's zebra is, as a rule, an inhabitant <>t open or thinly wooded country, and it appears to 

 avoid anything in the nature of thick cover. In Central Somaliland Major Swayne met with it 

 on low plateaux some 2,500 feet above sea-level, the side- of which fell in broken ravines to the 

 river- valleys. This country is described as broken and hilly, and here Grevy's zebras were met 

 with in small droves of about half a dozen. In the country between Mount Kenia and Lake 

 Rudolph, Mr. A. 11. Neumann frequently met with herds of Grevy's and Burchell's zebras 

 consorting; together. The contrast between the two specie- when thus seen side by side was 

 very marked, the former animals looking like horses among a flock of ponies. Mr. Neumann 

 never observed stallions of the two species fighting together, but on the other hand he states that 

 the stallions of the larger species fight viciously amongst themselves for possession of the mares. 

 Grevy's zebras seem never to collect in large herds, more than twenty, or at the outside thirty, 

 being very seldom seen together. 



Although this species is an inhabitant of arid plains and bare stony hills where the herbage 



is short, it requires 

 to drink daily, and 

 is never therefore 

 found at an>' great 

 distance from water. 

 The cry of Grevy's 

 zebra is stated to be 

 quite different from 

 that of Burchell's. 

 Mr. N e u man n de- 

 scribes it as a very 

 hoarse kind of grunt, 

 varied by something 

 approaching to a 

 whistle, the grunts 

 being long drawn 

 out, and divided by 

 the shrill whistling 

 sound, as if the latter 

 were made by draw- 

 ing in the breath 

 which had been ex- 

 pelled during the 

 sustained grunt. 



Like all other species of the genus to which they belong, Grevy's zebras, especially the mares 

 when in foal, become very fat at certain seasons of the year, and their flesh is much appreciated 

 both by natives and lions, the latter preying on them and their smaller congeners, Burchell's 

 zebras, in preference to any other animal, now that the rinderpest has almost exterminated the 

 great herds of buffalo which once roamed in countless numbers all over East Central Africa. 



BURCHELL'S Zebra once inhabited the whole of Southwestern, Southeastern. Central, and 

 Eastern Africa from the Orange River to Lake Rudolph; and though it has long ceased to exist 

 in the more southerly portions of its range, it i- still tin- most numerous and the best known of 

 all the species of zebra. 



The typical form of this specie- was first met with early last century by Dr. Burchell in 

 Southern Bechuanaland. In this form the legs are white below the knees and hocks, and the 

 body-stripes do not join the median stripe of the belly. In examples met with farther north 

 the legs are striped down to the hoofs and the body-stripes join the belly-stripe. South of 







Phnf l \ 7. T. IVVurffl [Bf.-ihamited 



THi-; HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD'S TEAM OF ZEBRAS 

 Air. Rothschild was practically the first person to break in zebras to harness. At one time these 



animals lucre thought to be quite untamable 



