i BURCHELL'S ZEBRAS 21 



doubt that he does the same in the case of all the 

 different kinds of game upon which he preys. Now 

 that the buffaloes have been almost exterminated 

 by the rinderpest in most parts of Africa, the zebra 

 undoubtedly forms the favourite food of the lion. 

 For every zebra that is killed by daylight probably 

 at least a hundred are killed during the night, 

 when, except by moonlight, they would appear to a 

 lion very much the same, as far as coloration goes, 

 as a black ox, a dark grey wildebeest, or a red 

 hartebeest, all of which animals look black by night 

 if they are near enough to be seen at all. 



I have had innumerable opportunities of looking 

 at wild zebras, and when met with on open ground 

 they certainly have always appeared to me to be 

 very conspicuous animals, except just at dawn and 

 late in the evening, when they are not so easy to 

 see as animals of some uniform dark colour, such 

 as hartebeests. 



In Southern Africa, between the Limpopo and 

 the Zambesi rivers, Burchell's zebras used to be 

 very plentiful in all the uninhabited parts of the 

 country, and although they were often met with 

 feeding or resting in districts covered with open 

 forest or scattered bush, I found them always very 

 partial to open ground, where they were as plainly 

 visible as a troop of horses. In East Africa the 

 local race of Burchell's zebra is remarkable for the 

 whiteness of the ground colour of the body and 

 the intense blackness of the superimposed stripes. 

 These beautiful animals congregate in large herds 

 on the bare open plains traversed by the Uganda 

 Railway, and probably form the chief food of the 

 lions living in that district. 



When in East Africa a few years ago, I took 

 special note of the appearance of zebras at different 

 distances on the open plains between Lakes Nakuru 

 and Elmenteita. I found that in the bright African 



