XIV GENERAL INTRODUCTJON. 



jury than from the shock to his nervous system. One 

 evening, when Matopo had refused for hours to retire 

 into his box, I threw a rug over hitn. He bounded across 

 the court (first nearly upsetting a mare, and then nearly 

 breaking his neck against the fence), and then rushed 

 around his box until the dreaded object was got rid of. 

 Had it been a lion the panic could hardly have been 

 greater, but he soon learned that a rug, however sug- 

 gestive, was perfectly harmless. Strangely enough, when 

 a zebra-skin is hung up within sight of Matopo he be- 

 comes excited. He arches his neck as if preparing for 

 single combat, and, though he refuses to approach the 

 skin, he is evidently not consumed with fear, as is the 

 case when a coil of rope is carried up to him. It has 

 been suggested that the rope appeals to his instinctive 

 dread of serpents, but I consider this unlikely. A 

 serpent-like object he strikes at Avith his hoofs; when his 

 legs are touched with a rope he drops on his knees or lies 

 down altogether. 



The other day Matopo escaped from his paddock, and 

 eventually found his way down three grass steps on to a 

 lawn. On two sides the lawn is bounded by a fairly steep 

 shrub-clad bank, on the other two it slopes somewhat 

 rapidly to a footpath. Nothing would induce Matopo to 

 descend this slope. He galloped gaily round the lawn as 

 if he were in a circus, and was with difficulty persuaded 

 to return the way he came. A somewhat timid Exmoor 

 pony went up and down the slope, on to and off the lawn, 

 without any hesitation. Probably the zebra, had he been 

 left to himself long enough, would have made a complete 

 inspection of the garden. 



The behaviour of the zebra interested me, because his 

 hybrid son Romulus had previously conducted himself in 

 a similar fashion when taken on to the lawn to be photo- 

 graphed. Romulus eventually, tempted by corn, allowed 

 himself to be led away from the lawn along a narrow grass 

 border from which return, without leaving the grass, was 

 impossible. Though Romulus in many ways behaves like 

 his sire, he is, compared with most zebras, ^'as water unto 



