348 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Female zebra lately in the Tower. 



setting fire to the straw on which he lay. The 

 fact, however, was as follows : The keeper had 

 left the apartment in which it was kept, for the 

 purpose of wa,rming some milk for a kanguroo r 

 when, during his absence, a light from a tin 

 hoop, suspended by a string from the ceiling, 

 unfortunately burned through its socket, dropped 

 upon the straw, and set fire to it. This animal 

 is said to have been purchased by the exhibitor 

 for three hundred pounds. 



These animals are principally fed with hay* 

 Their voice is thought by some persons to have 

 a distant resemblance to the sound of a post 

 horn : but it is of so singular a nature that it can- 

 not be accurately described. It is exerted more 

 frequently when the animal is alone than at 

 other times. 



The female zebra lately in the Tower, was 

 brought from the Cape of Good Hope by Lieu- 

 tenant General Dundas, and was purchased by 

 Mr. Bullock, the master keeper of the royal me- 

 iKigerie. She would sometimes permit her keeper 

 to mount upon her back, and would carry him 

 with tolerable docility; but she soon became 

 restive, and obliged him to dismount. He had 

 frequently the utmost difficulty to manage her, 

 from the irritability of her disposition, and the 

 great extent to which she could kick, in almost 

 every direction, with her feet. Strangers could 

 not possibly approach her without manifest dan- 

 ger. She one day seized her keeper by the coat, 

 with her mouth, and threw him upon the ground ; 



