158 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



curious still, the same chestnut mare was afterwards 

 put to a black sire of Arab blood, and threw two 

 colts, both of which were strongly striped on the 

 legs, while one of them had in addition stripes on 

 the neck and body. Again, Darwin instances a 

 hybrid bred at Knowsley from a female wild ass 

 {Asinus indicus) by a male domestic donkey, in 

 which not only were all four legs conspicuously 

 striped, but there were three short stripes on each 

 shoulder, and some zebra-like stripes on the face ! ^ 

 This subject of stripings and markings is, in 

 connection with the equine race alone, a very large 

 and very interesting one, and deserves to be more 

 widely followed up. Finally, to quote Darwin, "we 

 must admit that the progenitor (of the equine group) 

 was striped on the legs, shoulders, and face, and 

 probably over the whole body, like a zebra." 



All these facts tend very strongly to demonstrate 

 that the zebras of Africa are handsome examples 

 of a very ancient and very early type of the pure 

 equine race. In these modern days the zebras, 

 with their perfect forms and magnificent markings, 

 stand apart from their fellows, the proud remnants 

 of an ancient primeval stock, true children of nature 

 and of the wilds, untouched and unimproved by the 

 hand of man, yet challenging comparison in many 

 respects with the highest types of modern domesti- 

 ^ A7iimals and Flants tmder Domestication. 



