430 THE GIRAFFE AND THE ZEBRA 



legs, fly at their adversary with jaws distended, and use both 

 teeth and heels with the greatest freedom." 



The Gnu and the common quagga, delighting in the same 

 situation, not unfrequently herd toge- 

 ther ; but BurchelFs zebra is seldom 

 seen unaccompanied by troops of the 

 brindled gnu, an animal differing ma- 

 terially from its brother of the same 

 genus, from which, though scarcely less 

 ungainly, it is readily distinguishable 

 at a great distance by its black mane 

 qq^ ° and tail, more elevated withers, and 



clumsier action. 

 Both the douw and the quagga are more frequently seen in 

 Europe than the real zebra, and might be easily acclimatised, 

 particularly the former, which can bear the cold so well as 

 frequently to be seen lying on the snow in the Jardin des Plantes, 

 exposed to a temperature of three degrees, without the least 

 injury to its health. 



Whilst the douw and the quagga roam over the plains, the 

 zebra inhabits mountainous regions only. The beauty of its 

 light symmetrical form is enhanced by the narrow black bands 

 with which the whole of the white-coloured body is covered. 

 Buffon and Daubenton wished to see this elegant creature accli- 

 matised in Europe, which would procure us a beast of burden 

 stronger than the ass, and more beautiful in its nakedness than 

 the horse, even when adorned with the richest trappings. 

 A king of Portugal used frequently to drive about with four 

 zebras ; and, about the year 1761, two of these animals that were 

 kept in the park of Versailles had been so far tamed as to allow 

 themselves to be mounted. In spite of the proverbial obstinacy 

 of the zebra, there are thus no insuperable obstacles to its do- 

 mestication, and a course of training, continued through several 

 generations, would most likely subdue its reluctant nature as 

 completely as that of the original wild horse and ass. The zebra 

 is supposed to be the real hippotigris, or tiger -horse of the 

 ancients ; and this is the more probable, as he ranges much far- 

 ther to the north than the quagga or the douw, and approaches 

 the regions of Africa comprised within the Koman empire. 

 Historians inform us that in the year 202 after Christ, Plautius, 



