60 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. 



to modern Europe, that found by the Portuguese after they 

 had established themselves on the coast of Congo and Angola, 

 that animal seems to have been one of the varieties of E. hur- 

 chelli, and not the Mountain Zebra {E. zebra). 



" There breedeth likewise in this Countrey another Creature, 

 which they call a Zebra, commonly founde also in certaine Pro- 

 vinces of Barbary and Africa : which although it be altogether 

 made like a great Mule, yet is not a Mule indeed, for it beareth 

 young ones. It hath a most singular skinne, and peculiar from 

 all other creatures. For from the ridge of the chine downe 

 towards the bellie, it is straked with rowes of three colours, 

 blacke, white, and browne Bay, about the breadth of three 

 fingers a peece^, and so meet againe together in a circle, every 

 rowe, with his owne colour. So that the necke, and the head ; 

 and the Mane (which is not great) and the eares, and all the 

 legges are so interchaunged with these colours, and in such 

 manner and order, as without all faile, if the first strake beginne 

 with white, then followeth the second with blacke, and in the 

 thirde place the Bay : and so another course beginning in 

 white endeth still in Bay. And this rule is generally and 

 infallibly observed over all the body. The tayle is like the 

 tayle of a Mule, of a Morell colour, but yet it is well coloured, 

 and hath a glistring glosse. The feet like the feet of a Mule, 

 and so are the hoofifes. But touching the rest of her carriage 

 and qualities, she is very lusty and pleasaunt as a horse : and 

 specially in going, and in running she is so light and so swift 

 that it is admirable. In so much as in Portingale and in 

 Castile also, it is commonly used (as it were for a proverbe) 

 As swift as a Zebra, when they will signifie an exceeding 

 quickeness. These creatures are all wilde, they breede every 



lation by Martin Everart was issued at Amsterdam, 1596. The brothers 

 De Bry issued a German translation at Frankfurt in 1597, and a Latin version 

 in 1598. This Latin version is only an abbreviation. The latest English 

 version is that of Margaret Hutchinson (London, 1881) with a bibliography. 



1 Hartwell's version seems correct, and the Latin version coincides with it : 

 tribus enim diversis coloribus, nigro, albo, et spadiceo, qui per lineas tres 

 digitos latas, corpus a dorso versus ventrem hemicycli in modum ambiunt, per 

 totum corpus distinctum est. On the other hand Miss Hutchinson translates 

 "These large stripes are three fingers' length from each other, and meet in a 

 circle, every row with its own colour." 



