202 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



a distinct name (goldfinckP), are characterised by 

 the presence of a fawn-coloured unstriped area 

 immediately in front of the large oblique stripes on 

 the quarters. As only two or three individuals 

 showing this peculiarity are seen among the herds 

 of ordinary ^r^;^//, it is quite clear that the feature, 

 as I have pointed out in Nature^" is merely a sport. 

 A nearly white example of Grant's or one of the 

 allied races is exhibited in the Tring Museum, and 

 there is an albino Grevy's zebra in the Natural 

 History Museum. 



Much confusion has arisen from the description 

 of a so-called Ward's zebra, which Mr. R. I. Pocock^ 

 has shown to be almost certainly based on a 

 hybrid between the typical zebra and one of the 

 bontequaggas, probably chapmani. 



Quaggas and bontequaggas are essentially 

 animals of the plains, on which they congregated 

 in large herds, frequently associating with ostriches 

 and gnus ; the species of the latter group herding 

 with the true quagga being the white-tailed gnu, 

 while to the north of the Orange River its place 

 was taken by the brindled gnu. In 1837 Sir 

 Cornwallis Harris encountered enormous herds 

 of quaggas on the plains south of the Vaal River, 

 but even at that date they seem to have become 

 scarce in Cape Colony. As to the exact date of their 



^ Ridgeway, Natitre, vol. Ixxxvi. p. 245, 191 1. 



* Ibid.^ p. 281. ^ The Field, vol. cxiv. p. 389, 1909. 



