TBE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 131 



the stripes further extended down the legs, and rather different 

 markings on the back." There the matter ended till 1865, when 

 E. L. Layard wrote to J. E. Gray, sending figures and descriptions 

 of what he called a new species of zebra. " I wish," he said, " to 

 name the animal Equus chapmanni, after its discoverer, my 

 friend James Chapman, who has done so much for African dis- 

 covery, and who has hitherto reaped no reward." This letter 

 was read at the scientific meeting of May 9, when Dr. Sclater 

 exhibited a drawing of the animal by Wolf {Proceedings, 1865, 

 pi. xxii.), and said that it must be referred to this new species, 

 providing that should stand. The name has stood, but the 

 form has now only sub-specific rank. 



A new bird, the island-hen gallinule, from Tristan d'Acunha, 

 was also received. This species has lost the power of flight, and 

 with the shortening of the wings there has been a corresponding 

 development of the hind limbs. Part of the notice in the 

 Illustrated London News of July 6, in which issue Chapman's 

 zebra is well figured, is worth quoting : 



To the large and daily increasing number of naturalists of the 

 " Darwinian " School this bird is most interesting as showing the way in 

 which animals are modified in accommodation to circumstances. The 

 organs of flight would be of little use to a moor-hen on the dry, bush- 

 covered rock of Tristan d'Acunha, while speed in running becomes doubly 

 valuable where there are no sedgy, fresh-water ponds (such as ordinary 

 moor-hens love) to supply a ready means of escape. 



The second collection, calling for no special remark, was 

 brought over in November. Mr. Benstead went out again to 

 collect for the Society, his special object being to secure a 

 young African elephant and other animals that had long been 

 desiderata. He was received at Government House, and 

 made known his wants by means of an advertisement in the 

 Gape Argus. At that date there would seem to have been 

 no apprehension as to the approaching extinction of the 

 quagga. According to Mr. Bryden it disappeared south of 

 the Orange River before 1865, and probably within another 

 score of years it vanished from what was then the Orange 

 Free State, and was as completely lost as the dodo. Yet in 

 1861 Mr. Benstead expressly barred quaggas. The prices he 

 offered for animals, quoted on the following page, cannot be 

 called high : 



