ITS NEAREST EXISTING RELATIONS. 95 



expressed as to whether it might not be an exception- 

 ally-colored individual of one of the other species; 

 but subsequently other specimens, presenting almost 

 exactly the same characters, have been received from 

 Somali-land,* and it seems probable that all the 

 zebras which we know to exist in the northern 

 districts of East Africa belong to this species. The 

 very recent discovery of such a remarkable form of 

 animal, and the imperfect knowledge we possess of 

 its geographical distribution, is a striking illustration 

 of how much still remains to be done before we can 

 consider our information is complete regarding even 

 some of the larger and most conspicuous forms of 

 animal life. 



Though zebras have not been found depicted on 

 the Egyptian monuments, they were known to the 

 Romans, and occasionally exhibited in the amphithea- 

 ters, under the name of " hippotigrisP Dion Cassius 

 reports that Caracalla exhibited in the circus an ele- 

 phant, a rhinoceros, a lion, and a hippotigris j and 

 as many as twenty are stated to have been collected 

 for the triumph of Gordian the Third, and exhibited 

 by his murderer and successor, Philip the Arabian 

 (a.d. 244). 



The Quagga, or Couagga (Equus quagga, Gmelin), 



* See Sclater, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don, 1890, p. 413. 



