THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY. 107 



zebra, and the body and limbs are not so compact 

 and robust. 



There is, in fact, a more " leggy " look about 

 the animal ; the leg stripes are thinner and more 

 numerous, and upon the top of the rump from the 

 end of the back to the tail, on either side of the black 

 list running down the centre, is a good sized space of 

 white ; this white space is absent in the true zebra. 

 The ears of Equus Grevyii appear to be shorter than 

 in the South African animal. Beyond these points, 

 there is little difference between the zebra of Shoa 

 and of South Africa, widely sundered as are the 

 habitats of the two animals. 



The ferocity of the zebra is even more remarkable 

 than it is in its relatives of the plains. The older 

 Boers can give numerous anecdotes, illustrating the 

 dangerous and savage nature of the animal, and, 

 except when taken very young, it is perfectly 

 untamable. In bygone days, when much more 

 numerous than at present, I believe a considerable 

 number of young zebras were captured by the Dutch, 

 and exported to Mauritius, where they were trained 

 to harness, and considered to impart an air of 

 ton to fashionable equipages. Pringle an acute 

 observer and delightful prose writer, whose poems 

 on South Africa, its fauna, and its natural beauties 

 will live long after the last of the magnificent beasts 

 he describes have been swept away mentions the 

 frightful injuries sustained by a young Dutch colonist 

 from the bite of a zebra. The Boer was hunting in 

 some mountains of the Graaff Reinet district, and 

 had forced a zebra to the very brink of a precipice ; 

 the desperate brute turned to bay, attacked his 

 pursuer with its teeth, and actually tore his foot 



