226 MY SOMALI BOOK 



decidedty conspicuous. Obviously then, by far the 

 majority of zebras killed by lions must be killed in the 

 open and by night. At dusk, or when the night is very 

 dark, a zebra may be more invisible than some animals ; 

 but on the whole, it is probable that the zebra under 

 existing conditions can obtain no very appreciable 

 benefit from its colouration, in the matter of exemption 

 from attack. 



It by no means follows, however, that this coloura- 

 tion was not originally protective. Mr. Selous believes 

 the colour of animals to be due to a tendency to become 

 in harmony with their environment. Is this the case 

 with the zebra, looking upon it as an animal of the 

 open plain ? To me it seems the reverse. Mr. Selous, 

 however, indicates a way out of the difficulty when he 

 explains the dull and nearly uniform colouring of the 

 now extinct quagga. The latter was, he says, a 

 striped zebra which, having taken to living on the 

 semi-desert plains of Cape Colony, gradually lost the 

 ancestral stripes, which the zebra, living on the plains 

 of East Africa surrounded by well- wooded hills that 

 give some colour to the landscape, has retained. 



Assuming this view to be correct, I consider it 

 tends to show that it is to the influence of wooded 

 country rather than of the open plain that the zebra's 

 colouring is probably due. And this should be in 

 accordance with Mr. Selous' ideas, for a striped coat is 

 unquestionably more in harmony with its surroundings 

 in the jungle than in the open. It is also in accordance 

 with the undoubted fact that a striped coat is ordinarily 

 only found in jungle animals. 



Leaving out of consideration for the moment the 



