Sf) eci'es and Subspecies of Zebras. 35 



zpbra fiuni Zululaiul lias been exhibited in the British 

 Museum, and labelled, though quite erroneously, " Burchell'a 

 zebra, ty])ical variety." As a matter of fact, a glance at the 

 original figure will shov\- that the specimen in question is 

 very diftercnt from the type as figured and described by 

 Gray ; or, perhaps — and this seems the more likely explana- 

 tion — the wide aj^plication that is given to the name is attri- 

 butable to the existence of intermediate forms, which renders 

 an accurate recognition of the different kinds of Burchell's 

 zebra a task of no little difficulty. That a great number 

 of these " kinds " exist is beyond dispute. Moreover, just as 

 the right and left sides of a zebra are seldom, if, indeed, ever, 

 marked in the same way, so, too, are no two members of a 

 herd exactly alike. And yet at the same time an examina- 

 tion of skins from different parts of the vast area, with its 

 varied climate and geographical features, over which the so- 

 called ]3urchell's zebra roams, forces home the conviction on 

 the mind of the observer that the extreme variations in colora- 

 tion that occur are not, so to speak, fortuitous sports, but that 

 they are distinctly correlated with geographical distribution. 

 For example, the available evidence shows that the weakly 

 striped type of zebra from Zululand, as exemplified by the 

 specimen in the British Museum, does not occur in Mashuna- 

 land *, where a strongly striped type prevails ; nor does the 

 !Mashunaland zebra seem to be met with in Zululand. The 

 types, in fact, are perfectly distinct when considered apart 

 from other forms. It is true, however, that the animal 

 which always passes in this country as Chapman's zebra 

 presents characters nearly, if not quite, intermediate in their 

 nature between those distinctive of the local races mentioned 

 above, and that ^Vahlberg's zebra from Zululand similarly 

 constitutes a kind of link between Chapman's and the typical 

 Burchell's. In other words, these forms are not recognizable 

 as distinct sjjecies, as Dr. Paul Matschie holds, but must 

 rather take the rank of subspecies, the use of this word im- 

 plying on the part of the describer a belief, firstly, that the 

 forms named are geographical races or incipient species, and, 

 secondly, that intermediate types exist. 



The actual naming of such subspecies is, of course, open to 

 the objection that it is not possible to assign a definite name 

 to an absolutely annectant form. But against the opposite 

 course — the course that is usually adopted because it entails 

 no serious trouble — namely, that of neglecting subspecitic 



* Mr. J. fiolliott Darling informs me that the zebra characteristic of 

 Mashunaland is the i'oim here named Selousii, and that he has never met 

 ■with IVcthlberc/i in the country. 



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