Il] THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 61 



yeare, and are there in such aboundance that they are in- 

 numerable. If they were made tame, they woulde serve to 

 runne and to drawe for the warres, and for many other good 

 uses, as well as the best horses that are." 



In the same chapter we learn that Lopez (from whose 

 writings Pigafetta compiled his own work) had a tame zebra, 

 which was eventually killed by a leopard. The breadth of the 

 stripes, the fact that they were of three colours, and finally the 

 docility of the animal — characteristics of the Burchell rather 

 than of the Mountain Zebra {E. zebra), as will be immediately 

 shown — render it probable that the animal described by Lopez 

 belonged to the former rather than to the latter species. 



It is doubtful whether Burchell's zebra can be subdivided 

 into species or sub-species, though Dr Matschie^ makes four 

 species — E. antiquorum, E. burchelli, E. chapmani and E. 

 boehmi; and E. buixhelli granti^ and E. burchelli selousi have 

 been made into sub-species by some, though there is no evi- 

 dence that they are more than local races. It is best therefore 

 for the present to treat these and Crawshay's and Chapman's 

 zebras as simply local races, some of which are now found in 

 colour at least to link this type certainly to the Mountain 

 Zebra and even in some respects to the Somali species. The 

 Burchell group is distinguished from the last-named species by 

 having fewer and much broader stripes, which are disposed in 

 a pattern quite distinct on both body and head, the markings 

 on the forehead taking the form of pointed instead of rounded 

 arches^ (Fig. 36) except in Crawshay's zebra, where they are 

 round. 



Prof Evvart has shown that there is " now no link wanting 

 in the chain (if the striping alone is considered) that has at 

 one end the common mountain zebra (Fig. 29), with a 'grid- 

 iron' over the hind-quarters, and legs barred to the hoofs, 



1 Zool. Garten, xxxv. Hefte 2 and 3 ; Proc. Zool. Soc. 1895, p. 690 (where 

 Mr Sclater holds that Matschie's species are only "four different climatic 

 forms"). 



- Hamilton Smith, The Horse, p. 321. The name zebra is the Portuguese 

 adaptation of a native name. According to Ludolphus it is the negro form 

 of the Abyssinian zeuru of Lobo and the Galla zeora or zecora. 



^ Ewart, Penycuik Experiments, p. 76. 



