88 TELEGONY AND REVERSION. 



the tail, and is the third stripe in front of the stifle. Is it 

 possible to detect in the Somali zebra stripes corresponding 

 to the three flank stripes in the common and. Burchell 

 zebras ? I look upon the femoral stripe, which in the 

 Somali zebra is intimately related to the stifle, as the 

 equivalent of one of the oblique stripes lying between the 

 vertical and flank in the Burchell zebras. This stripe, 

 which in the Somali zebra forms a frame for the insertion 

 of a number of transverse stripes, in all probability also 

 corresponds to one of the long curved handles into which 

 is inserted the transverse base of the " gridiron " of the 

 mountain zebra. That there is some relation between the 

 femoral stripes in the Somali zebra and the oblique and 

 flank stripes of the other zebras will be more evident when 

 the croup and flank and femoral stripes in zebra hybrids 

 are taken into consideration. 



From the stripes in the mountain and Crawshay zebras 

 (Figs. 28 and 29) it is comparatively easy to derive the 

 varied patterns which ^obtain in the Chapman and Burchell 

 zebras. Between the lower part of the stripe which forms 

 the frame of the " gridiron ^' in the mountain zebra (Fig. 

 28), and the shoulder stripe, there are in the skins I have 

 seen from nine to ten nearly vertical stripes crossing the 

 sides, the majority of which in some cases reach, or all 

 but reach, the ventral band (Fig. 30) ; while in the Somali 

 zebra at the same level there are from eighteen to twenty 

 stripes, some of which after a short break also reach the 

 ventral band.* As the number of stripes in zebras is 



* Pocock, in referring to the common zebra {E. zebra), says, '• Except 

 for the longitudinal ventral band the belly is white, the flank stripes 

 stopping short of the belly as in the quagga, Burchell's zebra, and Grevy's 

 zebra." In the common zebra I saw last March in the Amsterdam Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens, stripes extended right across the belly, and in the foal (now, 

 1898, in the Zoological Gardens, London) the long broad ventral fringe of 

 hair was partially striped like the mane. This striation of the ventral 

 fringe (which has not, as far as I am aware, been ever described) is quite 

 evident in a photograph (Fig. 30) for which I am indebted to the Director, 

 Dr. C. Kerbert. In the Somali zebra some of the vertical stripes may 

 reach the ventral band. As they cross the belly they get lighter and 



