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THE ZEBRA 



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 re- 

 gularity 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 ribbons, 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 shades 

 of colour run into each other ; every stripe 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 suppose that the animal was dressed 

 out by art, and not thus admirably adorned by nature. 



In the male zebra, the head is striped with fine bands of 

 black and white, which are in a centre manner in the fore- 

 head. The ears are variegated with a white and dusky brown. 

 The neck has broad stripes of the same dark brown, run- 

 ning round it, leaving narrow white stripes between. The 

 body is striped also across the back with broad bands, 

 leaving narrower spaces of white between them, and 

 ending in points at the sides of the belly, which is white, 

 except a black line marked like a comb on each side 

 reaching from between the forelegs, along the middle of 

 the belly, two thirds of its length. The colours are 

 different in the female ; in none do the stripes seem entirely 



