ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. 



P. 58. I here add a summary of the facts about the Abyssinian 

 zebra collected by Job Ludolphus to which attention was first called 

 by Mr Edward Bidwell (Field and P.Z.S., 1901, n. 2), and which 

 were printed very fully by Mr H. Scherren in the Field (March 4, 

 1905). 



Job Ludolphus summarised the information collected by the 

 Jesuits concerning the Abyssinian zebra in his Historia Aethiopica 

 (1681). In his C ommentarius (1691) he added much interesting 

 matter, some of which he gleaned from Abyssinians, whom he met 

 at Rome while collecting material for his Aethiopic Grammar and 

 Lexicon, and perhaps from some of the Jesuit fathers. In his 

 Commentarius he deplores the fact that on account of its large head 

 and long ears this beautiful creature should be called an ass, by 

 people ignorant of its proper name that is as stated in the Historia 

 (i. 10), zecora in Abyssinia, and on the Congo zebra. Then he quotes 

 Philostorgius, an ecclesiastical writer (circ. 385-425), to the effect 

 that the country produces very large wild asses, black and white, 

 not spotted but zoned from the spine on to the sides and belly. 

 Jacobus Gothofredus, who annotated Philostorgius, thought these 

 were onagroi, wild asses of the Western Asiatic race, adding that 

 no one else had so described their coloration. Ludolphus points out 

 that Philostorgius does not use the ordinary Greek name onagroi, 

 but onoi agrioi (and insists on their size). * This animal,' he says, 

 "was not unknown at Rome, whither all wonderful things were 

 sent," thus anticipating Mr Lydekker's suggestion (Royal Natural 

 History, n. 505), that the hippotigris of the Roman circus was an 

 Abyssinian zebra. He also suggests that it was confused with the 

 onager by those who had not seen that species or that it was called 

 onager because people did not know its real name. Martial 

 (xm. 101) is cited and due stress is laid on the epithet 'beautiful' 



