38 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



the hunters of former days were fond of ascribing to 

 most of the animals which they pursued, without any 

 very solid foundation for the assertion, the Mountain 

 zebra, though doubtless less easily tamed than Burchell's, 

 need not necessarily be judged on this evidence. In fact, 

 Captain Hayes' successful breaking of a full-grown male 

 of the species to saddle is in itself sufficient to show 

 that with proper, quiet handling it can be brought into 

 subjection. 



BURCHELL'S ZEBRA. Burchell's zebra is by far the 

 most numerous and widely distributed of the group. So 

 extended is its range that it has become divided into a 

 number of local varieties or sub-species, which merge 

 almost imperceptibly the one into the other, though the 

 extreme types differ considerably in their marking. The 

 most northerly form is that known as Grant's, which 

 extends from Southern Abyssinia and the Egyptian 

 Sudan on the north, through Uganda and British East 

 Africa, until it links up with Crawshay's zebra of Nyasa- 

 land and Northern Rhodesia. Both these varieties have 

 strongly contrasted black and white markings (without 

 a trace of shadow stripes), which continue down to the 

 fetlocks. Upon crossing the Zambezi, the impediment 

 offered by that waterway to the free migration of animals, 

 and its consequent bearing upon type, is evident in the 

 presence of what are known as " shadow stripes," that 

 is to say, light brown bands showing upon the white 

 ground which separates the black markings. 



Burchell's zebras are naturally so sociable, that not 

 only are they themselves often found in very large herds, 

 but the herds themselves are constantly found associated 

 with other animals, especially in the Transvaal, with 

 blue wildebeest ; single individuals however, seldom, seem 

 to join themselves to troops of antelopes. Near Nakurn, 



