74 THE EXISTING EQUIDAE [CH. 



the striped quagga, or Burchell's Zebra. These differ little 

 from each other in point of shape or size, both having the tail 

 and ears of the horse, whilst the zebra has those of the ass. Of 

 a pale red colour, the quagga is faintly striped only on the head 

 and neck, but Burchell's Zebra is adorned over every part of the 

 body with broad black bands, which beautifully contrast with 

 the plain yellow-brown. The gnoo and the common quagga, 

 delighting in the same situations, not unfrequently herd to- 

 gether, but I have seldom seen Burchell's Zebra unaccompanied 

 by groups of the brindled gnoo, — an animal differing n)aterially 

 from its brother of the same genus, from which, though scarcely 

 less ungainly, it is readily distinguishable at a great distance by 

 its black mane and tail, more elevated withers and clumsier 

 action ^" 



Much controversy rages round the quagga, and is likely to 

 continue, since the scantiness of the available data and the 

 hopelessness of obtaining much more precludes the possibility 

 of certainty in conclusions. Mr Pocock has pointed out that 

 the current descriptions of the quagga are made up by blend- 

 ing together animals of different types, and Mr Pocock and 

 Mr Lydekker have suggested that the quaggas figured by 

 Edwards- (Fig. 38), by Harris^ and Hamilton Smith^, may be 

 sub-specifically distinct from the one photographed by York and 

 the specimens preserved in various museums ; and Mr Lydekker 

 has proposed names for two new sub-species — E. quagga greyi 

 (the British Museum, Amsterdam, Tring, and Edinburgh speci- 

 men), and E. quagga loremi (the Vienna specimen). Mr Pocock 

 thinks that Lord Morton's famous quagga stallion known only 

 from a drawing (Fig. 39) belonged probably to the Quagga greyi 

 sub-species^ Mr Lydekker is now very doubtful whether the 

 division into races is justifiable, although it is possible that the 

 Vienna specimen may be distinct, and " despite certain differ- 

 ences in regard to the width and backward extension of the 



^ The Wild Sports of Southern Africa (London, 1841), p. 48. 

 2 Gleanings of Natural History (London, 1758), p. 29, PI. 223. 

 ^ Sir W. Cornwallis Harris, The Game Animals of South Africa (1840), PI. ii. 

 * Horses (PI. xxiv). 



•'' The Elgin quagga's head, here first published (pp. 436-8, Figs. 131-3), 

 seems to come closest to this category. 





