GBEVY'S ZEBRA. 49 



" A beautiful creature he was — a fine young stallion, larger 

 and far handsomer than Burchell's zebra, the stripes much 

 narrower, except one very broad dark one down the back, with 

 wide light ground on either side. The cry of this zebra is quite 

 different from the bark of the commoner kind, being a very 

 hoarse kind of grunt, varied by something approaching a whistle. 

 The Mackenzie river seems to be about their limit here, as on this 

 (west) side of its most easterly branch I saw only Burchell's." 



The old doctrine of the immutability of species and their 

 separate and distinct creation is one that is not now held 

 by the majority of modern naturalists. Disputing, there- 

 fore, as to whether two closely allied animals are speci- 

 fically or sub-specifically distinct is almost a waste of 

 words. We know that a species spread over a wide area 

 will change according to the conditions of life, until at last 

 the two extremes are so diverse as to be regarded as distinct 

 species, but no one can say where one species ends and the 

 other begins, for they merge gradually into each other. 



If I might be bold enough to express an opinion, I 

 would say that Equus grevyi and Equus zebra are the 

 same animal modified slightly by a long residence, possibly 

 for many thousands of years, in different localities. The 

 skin which Mr. Sclater reproduces as evidence of their 

 distinction, appears to me the most convincing proof 

 of their identity. There are to be seen in both animals 

 the same transverse bands on the legs, the same general 

 disposition of the stripes on the body, and on the 

 neck. There are even in the E. grevyi the rudiments of 

 the gridiron marks on the hind quarters of the E. zebra, 

 and almost the only difference is the larger number and 

 smaller width of the stripes in E. grevyi. The "strong 

 black and isolated dorsal stripe '' in the type specimen at 

 Paris, on which Sir William Flower places so much reliance, 



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