170 NATURE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



'churr' grass, with red gravelly soil and rocks 

 cropping up now and then." They were found in 

 herds of under a dozen, were extremely tame, and 

 easily shot. The stripes of adult specimens only 

 approach "intense black" over the withers; else- 

 Avhere they are of a very deep chocolate colour, 

 changing to light tan on the forehead and muzzle. 

 Out of the skins of some two hundred zebras seen 

 by Captain Swayne alive, all were of the same 

 narrow type of striping (as in the original Grevy's 

 zebra) and showed no variation of pattern.^ 



This new and very interesting species is now 

 plainly established ; the v/onder is that not until so 

 late a period as between 1880 and 1890 has it been 

 discovered and recorded. Grevy's zebra appears 

 to run in small troops of much the same number 

 as the mountain zebra of South Africa, and the 

 nature of its habitat — bush, grass, and rock — is very 

 similar. Its range is evidently somewhat lower; 

 but here it may be pointed out that the zebra of 

 South Africa has most probably sought the higher, 

 rougher, and more inaccessible parts of its mountains 

 in proportion as it has been persecuted by man. 

 Probably Grevy's zebra in Gallaland and Somaliland 

 will, now that it has been " discovered," and that 

 the natives find a ready market for the skins, and 

 therefore begin to pursue it systematically, retreat 

 1 Letter to the Field, August 5, 1893, 



