EQUIDsE 



385 



century. The name is an imitation of the shrill barking neigh of 

 the animal " ouag-ga, ouag-ga," the last syllable very much pro- 

 longed. It must be remembered, however, in reading books of 

 African travel that the same word is very commonly applied by 

 hunters to Burchell's Zebra. 



Of the Zebras proper, the one which was first known to Europeans, 

 and was formerly considered the most common, is the True Zebra 

 (E. zebra), sometimes called the Mountain Zebra. It inhabits the 

 mountainous regions of the Cape Colony ; but now, owing to the 

 advances of civilised man into its somewhat restricted range, it has 



1 



-c3&;i 

 FIG. 161. True or Mountain Ze 



zebra). 



become very scarce, and is even, like the Quagga, threatened with 

 extermination at no distant date. The second species, Burchell's 

 Zebra (E, burchelli), still roams in large herds over the plains to the 

 north of the Orange River, but in yearly diminishing numbers. 

 Both species are subject to considerable individual variations in 

 marking, but the following are the principal characters by which 

 they can be distinguished. 



E. zebra (Fig. 161) is the smaller of the two (about 4 feet high 

 at the shoulders), and has longer ears, a tail more scantily clothed 

 with hair, and a shorter mane. The general ground colour is white, 

 and the stripes are black ; the lower part of the face is bright brown. 

 With the exception of the abdomen and the inside of the thighs, the 

 whole of the surface is covered with stripes, the legs having narrow 

 transverse bars reaching quite to the hoofs, and the base of the tail 



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