BONTE- QUAGGA 57 



stripe is continued to the root of the tail, and is not crossed by 

 transverse bars, but traversed longitudinally by the backward extension 

 of at least one of the body-stripes. 



The typical Burchell's bonte-quagga, or Burchell's zebra (Equus 

 b. typicus], now nearly, if not completely, exterminated as a wild 

 animal, formerly inhabited British Bechuanaland and some of the 

 adjacent districts in enormous droves. In this typical race the 

 ground-colour is orange, and the shadow-stripes on the hind-quarters 

 are strongly marked, and narrower than the main stripes, which are 

 themselves broader than the light interspaces containing the shadow- 

 stripes. The hind-quarters have only a few short stripes below the 

 long stripe running to the root of the tail ; the body-stripes stop 

 short on the sides of the under-parts, so as to be widely separated from 

 the longitudinal ventral stripe ; and, with the occasional exception of 

 a few on the knees and hocks, the legs are devoid of stripes, as are 

 usually the sides of the tail. 



The original specimen in the British Museum, brought home by 

 the great African traveller, Dr. Burchell, was, unfortunately, destroyed 

 at a time when little attention was paid to the priceless value of 

 " types." The national collection has, however, now one specimen, and 

 there is a second in the museum at Tring, and a third in the Bristol 

 Museum, which come very close to the typical form, although neither 

 is exactly similar, and each differs slightly from the other. There 

 is also a specimen in the American Museum of Natural History, which 

 was purchased from Messrs. Barnum and Bailey's travelling menagerie 

 in the year 1885, and another in Paris. 



Nearly allied is the Damaraland bonte-quagga (E. b. antiquorum}, 

 in which stripes are developed above the knees and hocks, but none 

 (or very few) below. 



To mention all the local races that have been named is unnecessary 

 in a work of the present nature ; but the following are the most 

 important. 



In the Zulu bonte-quagga (E. b. wahlbergi), like all those which 

 follow, the body- stripes meet the ventral stripe inferiorly, while 

 the legs are more or less fully striped. In this particular race the 

 shadow-stripes on the hind-quarters are strongly developed, and not 

 much narrower than the main stripes, which are narrower than the 

 intervening spaces ; and the fetlocks and pasterns are devoid of stripes 

 or spots. This race is represented in the collection of the British 

 Museum by a specimen purchased in I 846 from the African naturalist 

 and collector Wahlberg, after whom it is named. A female zebra from 



