xv AN UNCAGED ZOO 187 



ready to pick up any fragments that might be left on 

 the ground ; they obtained very few, for the native 

 is very fond of the viscera, especially the paunch and 

 the soft fat which forms the omentum and fills the 

 mesentery. 



Conspicuous coloration of animals has been the 

 favourite theme of many naturalists. No one should 

 argue on such matters from observations made in a 

 menagerie or a museum. It is difficult to imagine a 

 more conspicuously coloured mammal than a zebra. 

 The large black and white stripes seemed specially 

 designed to betray it. On one occasion as we were pro- 

 ceeding to the lake the tracker gave us the sign to 

 dismount, and pointed out some shadowy forms grazing 

 quietly under a conical grass-covered hill. " Ngombe " 

 (cattle) said the hunter. We moved a hundred yards 

 closer, looked at them again through the field glass, 

 and then realised that it was a herd of zebra. Many 

 times whilst wandering about this extraordinary Kift 

 Valley or watching from the train in the late afternoon, 

 I have been surprised at the peculiar shadowy tint 

 assumed by these brilliantly striped animals when stand- 

 ing against a forest or some tall bluff as a background. 



h is worth remembering that some of the beautifully 

 coloured fish which live in the waters around coral 

 islands are striped, and when they assume tints which 

 make them inconspicuous the colour becomes diffuse ; 

 thus they can assume a striped or a diffused coloration 

 apparently at will. The shadow-like tint of the zebra 

 in the fading daylight is an optical illusion. 



When Joseph Thomson traversed Masailand in 1883 

 he met zebras in thousands, and writes : " It was a 

 magnificent sight to watch these beautiful animals 

 thundering along in great squadrons ; here stretching 

 out like racers as they passed in dangerous proximity to 

 the enemy ; there massed up at bay with excited mien 

 and head erect, trotting about with splendid action as if 

 daring the hunter to approach." 



