JloraeSy Xthnts^ and T'ij>irs. 1 1 ] 



is entirely \vi\)ii^, uiul lioKlrf that tlic white luaiks iti zrhraa 

 nro the true stripes and the bhick the grouiuI-e<jK)ur. 

 Althi)Ui;li this hypothesis appears at first flight to bo irn- 

 prohahle, espi-cially when brought into contact with the 

 coloration of such species of Equiilo) as Prjevalsky'a horse 

 or the Nubian wild ass, it seems to me to be worthy of 

 careful consideration and not hastily diamisaible aa without 

 foundation. 



In its favour its author adduces the following facta. In 

 several groups ot Ungulates there is a pattern of white spots, 

 which are either transitory and confined to the young or are 

 persistent through life to old age. The deer furnish familiar 

 instances of both these phenomena, and no one probably 

 doubts that white spots tending to run into longitudinal lines 

 formed the |)attorn of primitive members of the Cervidse. 

 Antelopes ot the subfamily Tragelaphiiise also commonly 

 exhibit white markings usually in the form of transverse 

 stripes, but sometimes, as in Trage lap hits, of longitudinal 

 white stripes and spots often coexistent with the transverse 

 stripes, which have probably been derived from them. 

 Giraftes, too, although commonly described as spotted with 

 brown on a whitish ground, may be equally well regarded aa 

 brown animals with a network of white. This is especially 

 evident in the Somaliland race of the North-African giraffe 

 {Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata) ; and in view of what has 

 already been said of the prevalence of a pattern of white in 

 some other luminant Ungulates, the view that giraffes are 

 fundamentally brown animals marked with white must be 

 regarded as highly plausible. Even outside the limits of 

 the Ruminantia pale longitudinal bands occur in Artiodactyle 

 Ungulates, aa in the young of some species of pigs {Sus). 

 Artiodactyle Ungulates, however, are by no means nearly 

 related to Equidse, and cannot in themselves be considered 

 as supplying very valuable evidence on the nature of zebra- 

 patterns. Much more to the point, indeed in the highest 

 degree pertinent to the question at issue, is the faet that the 

 young of tapirs, the most primitive (as horses are the most 

 specialized) of existing Perissodactyle Ungulates, are thickly 

 covered with white stripes and spots forming longitudinal 

 bands on a dark ground. 



These are the facts, amplified in detail, upon which 

 Johnston based his conclusion. Let us see if his argument 

 can be further elaborated by a comparison between the 

 markings of young tapirs and existing Equidas, especially 

 zebras. 



