46 GBEVY'S ZEBRA. 



" I found tliey did not range further north on mv route than 

 about 7" 50' of latitude, and thence to the Webbe Shabeli river 

 at Ime, on the Galla border, they were common. The zebras, of 

 which I saw several herds at different times, were always found 

 on low plateaux covered with scattered or thick thorn bush and 

 tall, feathery 'durr' grass, with red gravelly soil and rocks 

 cropping up now and then. I saw none of their tracks in the 

 wide open grass plains, though this was not, I believe, the 

 experience of another sportsman whose route lay about 100 miles 

 to the eastward of, and parallel to, mine. The zebras, when I 

 saw them, were in herds of under a dozen, and they were so 

 tame that it was only because I had a large following to feed 

 that I was induced to shoot them. I have several skins, and 

 the stripes of adult ones only apj^roach ' intense black ' over 

 the withers ; elsewhere they are of a very deep chocolate colour, 

 changing to light tan on the forehead and muzzle. 



" In the skin of a quite young zebra which some natives 

 brought me, the stripes were light brown, except on the withers. 

 I notice that skins brought down by natives and sold in Aden 

 seem to fade, and appear nearly dull black. The stripes on all 

 the skins of some 200 zebras which I saw alive, at one time 

 and another, were of the same narrow type on the flanks, show- 

 ing no variation in pattern so far as I could see." 



At a later date Captain Swayne, in his valuable field 

 notes on the Game Animals of Somali-lnnd, published in 

 the ''Proceedings of the Zoological Society'' for 1894, writes 

 of this animal as follows : 



'* G-revy's Zebra (the Somali name of which is fer'o) was, I 

 think, first shot in Somali-land by Colonel Paget and myself on 

 our simultaneous expeditions last spring. 



" I found them first at Durhi, in Central Ogadeu, between thi' 

 Tug Faf an and the Webbe, about 300 miles inland from Berbera. 

 I shot seven specimens, all of which were eaten by myself and 

 my thirty followers ; in fact, for many days we had no other 

 food ; and this was no hardship whatever, as the meat is better 



