QUEEN VICTORIA'S GIFTS 



GREVY'S ZEBRA 



This splendid zebra, the very culmination of zebras, 

 is one of the most striking exhibits in the Regent's Park. 

 It is, too, one of the chief novelties which recent events 

 have enabled the society to add to their menagerie. So 

 lately as 1899 the first two examples were procured 

 through her late Majesty Queen Victoria, who received 

 them as a gift from the Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia. 

 With her customary liberality, the Queen placed these 

 horses in the Zoological Gardens for exhibition to the 

 public. The zebra had, however, been known to us 

 before that date. In 1882 the first specimen now in 

 Europe was sent by the same Emperor to M. Grevy, late 

 President of the French Republic, and the beast was 

 described as new to science by the late Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards. It seems, however, that the fellow explorer 

 with Speke, Colonel Grant, had seen and preserved an 

 example of the same zebra so long ago as 1860 ; but he 

 only described it later, in fact not until 1883. So 

 much for the history of this the king of zebras. Equus 

 grevyi can be readily distinguished from the other 

 zebras, all of which, as every one knows, are purely 

 African in their range, by a number of salient characters. 

 It is a larger beast, and especially has a large head and 

 ears, the latter being particularly hairy. The black and 

 white bands are very definitely black and white as 

 the variety of Burchell's zebra known as Equus Chap- 

 manni. In other zebras there is a tendency to dulness 

 in the black, which occasionally is even brown. The 

 closeness of the stripes and their arrangement may be 

 seen to differ from the mountain zebra, which perhaps 

 comes nearest in striping. But this can be seen in a 

 shorter time than it will take to write a description. 

 It is probable, in fact, that Grevy's zebra is much more 

 distinct from all other zebras, including the quagga, 



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