ZEBRA-HOKSE HYBRIDS. 47 



a stripe runuing obliquely across the hind quarters in 

 almost the same position as the oblique stripe in the 

 Somali zebra, which I have elsewhere referred to as the 

 wppev femoral stripe. The remarkable difference between 

 the markings over the hind quarters of Norette and her 

 sire Matopo, and the equally remarkable resemblance 

 between these markings in Norette and the Somali zebra, 

 seem to me to throw a flood of light on the relationships 

 of the stripes in the various species and varieties of 

 zebras, and at the same time strongly to support the view 

 already advanced, that the difference between the stripes 

 of the sire and his various hybrid offspring is in all 

 probability due to atavism or reversion. If this is the 

 correct explanation, it follows as a matter of course that, 

 at least in the markings, the Somali is the most primitive 

 of all the known recent zebras. 



That the hybrids have reverted in at least their markings 

 towards a somewhat I'emote ancestor of the zebras is also 

 indicated by the presence of faint " shadow " stripes on 

 the neck. From Matopo having twelve cervical stripes 

 and some zebras having in addition nine or ten " shadow " 

 stripes, and from Romulus having twice as many stripes 

 as Matopo, it may be inferred the typical number of 

 cervical stripes in zebras is twenty-four or thereabout. 

 But in Norette, in addition to the twenty-four cervical 

 stripes there were at least five faint " shadow " stripes. 

 In zebra-ass hybrids there are usually many indistinct 

 stripes on the neck and body, and numerous spots over 

 the hind quarters. I consider zebra-ass hybrids more 

 primitive in their markings than zebra-horse hybrids. In 

 having numerous cervical stripes Norette approaches 

 zebra-ass hybrids, and the only explanation of this that 

 occurs to me is that in Norette we have, in the striping of 

 the neck, a further reversion than in any of the other 

 hybrid offspring of Matopo, 



During the first three months the mane of Norette was 

 quite upright, though thicker than in the other hybrids. 

 During the last four months the mane has been increasing 



