THE ZEBRA. 15 



It is chiefly a native of the southern parts of 

 Africa ; and there are whole herds of them often 

 seen feeding in those extensive plains that lie 

 towards the Cape of Good Hope. However, their 

 watchfulness is such, that they will suffer nothing 

 to come near them ; and their swiftness so great, 

 that they readily leave every pursuer far behind. 

 The zebra, in shape, rather resembles the mule, 

 than the horse or the ass. It is rather less than 

 the former, and yet larger than the latter. Its 

 ears are not so long as those of the ass, and yet 

 not so small as in the horse kind. Like the ass, 

 its head is large, its back straight, its legs finely 

 placed, and its tail tufted at the end ; like the 

 horse, its skin is smooth and close, and its hind 

 quarters round and fleshy. But its greatest beauty 

 lies in the amazing regularity and elegance of its 

 colours. In the male, they are white and brown ; 

 in the female, white and black. These colours 

 are disposed in alternate stripes over the whole 

 body, and with such exactness and symmetry, 

 that one would think nature had employed the 

 rule and compass to paint them. These stripes, 

 which, like so many ribands, are laid all over its 

 body, are narrow, parallel, and exactly separated 

 from each other. It is not here, as in other party- 

 coloured animals, where the tints are blended into 

 each other ; every stripe here is perfectly distinct, 

 and preserves its colour round the body, or the 

 limb, without any diminution. In this manner 

 are the head, the body, the thighs, the legs, and 

 even the tail and the ears, beautifully streaked, so 

 that at a little distance one would be apt to sup-* 



