2 12 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



to cause the uppermost one on each side to 

 form the lateral border of the aforesaid gridiron. 

 Although some of the northern races of the bonte- 

 quagga show traces of this gridiron, it is never 

 so strongly developed as in the present species. 

 All the limbs are barred down to the hoofs, and the 

 chestnuts on the front pair are larger than in any 

 other existing member of the horse family. The 

 throat is also peculiar in having a small dewlap, 

 and there is a considerable amount of tan-colour on 

 the muzzle. In height the zebra apparently stands 

 about iij hands ; although many of the old writers 

 put the stature considerably higher, as they do in 

 the case of the bontequagga. 



Although the zebra is essentially a mountain 

 animal, inhabiting the very summits of the ranges 

 of Cape Colony, while the quagga was a denizen 

 of the surrounding plains, this difference in habits 

 was unknown to Linnaeus, who regarded the latter 

 as the female of the former, and therefore did not 

 give it a distinct scientific name. Formerly the 

 zebra, or mountain zebra, as it is sometimes called, 

 seems to have inhabited all the mountain ranges of 

 Cape Colony, where its former presence is indicated 

 by such names as Paarde Berg, Paarde Kraal, and 

 Paarde Fontein ; and about the year 1892 a few 

 herds survived, under Government protection, on 

 the Zwartberg, Sneeuberg, and Winterhoeck ranges, 

 and some still remain in a wild state in the Cradock 



