40 Mr. R. I. Pocock on the 



This species was apparently first met witli, by tlie traveller 

 wliose name it bears, across the Vaal River in British 

 Bechuaualand. The exact locality of the type specimen 

 seems to have been unrecorded, Gray contenting himself with 

 the statement that the species occurs on the flats near the 

 Cape. Burchell, however, tells us that he fell in with this 

 species at several localities — to wit, Klaarvvater, Kuruman, 

 Littaku, &c. Matschie, indeed (Zool. Garten, xxxv. p. G6, 

 1894), believes that it extends eastwards as far as Zululand, 

 basing- his opinion apparently upon the assertion by Buckley 

 that Burchell's zebra is common in that country. It seems 

 evident, however, that Buckley was s])eaking, not of the 

 typical Burchelli, nor of the form recognized by Matscliie as 

 Burchelli, in which there are no stripes on the legs, fore or 

 hind, and only the merest traces of them on the flanks, but 

 of either the form termed Chapmanni or that named 

 WaJdbergi, in which, as exj)lained below, the stripes reach 

 below the hocks or even to the hoofs. 



According to Gray, the body of the type was white and 

 marked with alternate broad stripes of black and narrow ones 

 of brown, the latter nearly filling up the intervals between 

 the former. Moreover, the " shadow- stripes," as stated in the 

 description and clearly shown in the figure, were visible not 

 only on the shoulder but right up the neck almost as far as 

 the head. In other words, it may be briefly said that every 

 broad black stripe on the neck and body was accompanied by 

 its corresponding shadow-stripe j and, lastly, none of the body- 

 stripes pass beneath the belly, and only the upper part of the 

 flank is ornamented with them, the lower part of this region, 

 the belly, legs, and tail being quite white, and, according to 

 Gray, without stripes, though probably this assertion must 

 not be considered to include the median belly-stripe and the 

 spinal stripe, v/hich in all other known zebras spreads on to 

 the root of the tail. 



The form figured and described by Matschie (Zool. Garten, 

 xxxv. p. 66, 1894) as Burchell's zebra, though showing the 

 same distribution of stripes as in Gray's type, appears to 

 differ from it in the entire absence of shadow-stripes. None, 

 at least, are mentioned in the description and none appear on 

 the figure taken from a living specimen, from an unstated 

 locality, in the Zoological Gardens at Berlin. 



But though differing from the type, this specimen seems 

 to resemble the left-hand figure of the plate depicting 

 Burchell's zebras published by Gray in the ' Knowsley 

 Menagerie,' the drawing on the right representing an animal 

 closely approaching the typical form, and distinguishable from 



