ZEBRAS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS 171 



in the same manner to higher and wilder fastnesses 

 among the mountains. It is to be hoped that before 

 long we shall see living examples of this zebra, as 

 well as of its South African congener, in the 

 Zoological Society's Gardens. 



Next on my list stands the Burchell's zebra 

 (Uqims lurchelli), the Boiite quagga of the Boers 

 and Pcetsi (sometimes Peetsi tolatsan) of the 

 Bechuanas. The Cape Dutch name for this quad- 

 ruped — Bonte quagga (pied or striped quagga) — is 

 a wrongful and misleading one, and, from having 

 been adopted by nearly all interior hunters and 

 traders, has given rise to much doubt and confusion 

 among naturalists. Among natives there was only 

 one quagga, or rather Quacha (a pure Hottentot 

 name) in the country — the now extinct Equus 

 quagga, which never ranged north of the Vaal 

 river. Unfortunately the Boer misnomer has stuck 

 to Burchell's zebra, and whenever up-country people 

 refer to this animal they term it almost invariably 

 *' quagga" for short. The mistake has been re- 

 peated in books of travel by several authors, and 

 for this simple reason many people at home have 

 doubted whether the true quagga was really 

 extinct after all. Burchell's zebra, which, from its 

 frequency in European zoological collections, is quite 

 the best known of the family, is taller than the true 

 zebra, and stands about thirteen hands in height — 



