ZEBRAS AND QUAGGAS 205 



those qualities may be quoted the lack of stamina, 

 which was disclosed when working in the sandy 

 veldt ; but this, I think, was mainly due to a want of 

 corn-feeding-, for it seems barely possible for it to 

 be a characteristic failing of the species, as they are 

 of muscular build, although light-boned." 



In this place it will be convenient to refer to 

 modern views with regard to the object of the 

 peculiar type of colouring presented by quaggas, 

 bontequaggas, and zebras. In all the fully-striped 

 members of the group it is commonly believed by 

 naturalists that the general effect of this type of 

 colouring is to render the animal in which it occurs 

 inconspicuous at a distance on open places, at close 

 quarters in moonlight or at dusk, and amid bush- 

 jungle. Such effects are due in part to the alter- 

 nate dark and light stripes harmonising with the 

 shafts and streaks of sunlit falling on foliage, and 

 in part to the stripes on the body and limbs break- 

 ing up the general hard outline of the animal into 

 a more or less indistinct, soft greyish blur. This, 

 however, is not all, for it has been shown by Mr. 

 R. I. Pocock^ that the arrangement of the striping 

 in these animals is specially designed to give the 

 utmost intensity to this breaking-up effect. As 

 is well shown in some of the accompanying illus- 

 trations, the arrangement of the striping in the 

 more northerly races of the bontequagga divides 



^ Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1909, p. 418. 



