92 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



These zebras were only discovered some twenty years 

 since, the first example known to modern Europe 

 having been sent in the year 1882 by the Negus 

 Menelik, then King of Shoa, to President Grevy of 

 the French Republic. They are now familiar to most 

 sportsmen in British East Africa and Somaliland. 



They run usually in troops ranging from seven or 

 eight to as many as twenty or thirty. The country 

 they frequent varies in different localities. Sometimes 

 they are to be met with on low plateaux covered 

 with scattered thornbush and tall feathery " durr " 

 grass, with rocks outcropping here and there ; at 

 others on bare open plains and stony hills. When 

 not persecuted by gunners they are tame and con- 

 fiding beasts, and are easily shot, occasionally within a 

 range of 50 yards. Zebras of all kinds, it may be 

 noted, drink every day, and cannot, like many of 

 the antelopes, exist long without water. They are 

 in every part of Africa a very favourite prey of lions. 

 The spoor of the big Grevy's zebra is far more horse- 

 like than the donkey-like imprint of Burchell's and 

 the mountain zebra. 



Although Grevy's zebra has apparently only 

 recently been discovered, there is a curious reference 

 in a History of Ethiopia, published in 1682, to what 

 is evidently the same animal. Here is the extract : 

 "But there is a beast which is called Zecora, 

 which for beauty exceeds all the Four-footed 

 Creatures in the World. They of Congo give it 

 the name of Zebra. This creature is about the 

 bigness of a Mule, and is brought out of the Woods 



