ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 189 



cold. Not only were these animals royal gifts at 

 the time Ludolphus wrote, but before then at least 

 one specimen had reached Europe alive. This 

 statement rests on the authority of a French author, 

 who saw the animal at Constantinople. He says 

 that among other gifts brought by the Abyssinian 

 envoy to the Grand Seigneur was an ass with a 

 very beautiful skin, if indeed it were natural. This, 

 however, he declined to vouch for, not having 

 examined the animal. But he noted the more than 

 ass-like size, the large head, long ears, and the 

 regularity of the stripes ' of the breadth of a finger,' 

 though he called the dark stripes chestnut-brown 

 instead of black. . . . The Abyssinian envoy started 

 with three zebras as gifts for the Turkish ruler ; two, 

 however, died by the way. These w^ere flayed, and 

 he brought the skins with him and presented them 

 to the Grand Seigneur with the living specimen." 



All the zebras and quaggas were separated from 

 the genus Eqiius by Colonel Hamilton Smith to 

 form a genus by themselves, for which he revived 

 the classic name Hippotigris. There is no sufficient 

 justification for this, as all the members of the group 

 are closely allied to the other living Equidcs ; and, 

 what is of even more importance, exhibit consider- 

 able differences amono- themselves. 



As already mentioned, all the members of the 

 group are confined at the present day to Ethiopian 

 Africa ; and there is no sufficient evidence that 



