ENDERIT PJVER AND LAKE NAKURU 21 



legs being plain white ; and of the legs of two pairs of 

 zebra that 1 shot in the Transvaal and happened to keep, 

 one is almost pure white from the knee downwards, the 

 second pair being striped to the pasterns. In A Breath 

 from the Veld Mr. J. G. Millais shows all his zebra, shot 

 in Mashonaland, with plain white legs. Again, in the 

 true quagga [E. quagga — long since exterminated) the 

 striping, half obsolete at best, was confined to the head, 

 neck and shoulders only. This was the southernmost 

 form of all. 



It seems obvious that in this case systematists have 

 had the bad luck to begin at the wrong end of the 

 rano'e. since it is from the north that the true aboriginal 

 type of zebra has come, dispersing thence southwards. 

 The laro-est and handsomest zebra of all — a trulv dis- 

 tiuct species — E. grevi/i, is still restricted to the north 

 of the equator ; while the southernmost form, typified 

 as true Burchell's, is really a mere degenerate variation 

 of the original, heavily-striped type, E. chapmani. 

 Personally I am no advocate for splitting species merely 

 on such oTounds as colour-variation, and am not even 

 prejudiced by the claims of a namesake ! 



During our first week's shooting at this charming- 

 spot we obtained good specimens of most of the local 

 game, and the pile of horned heads and pegged-out skins 

 behind our tents made an imposing show. The harte- 

 beests, however, had so far defied our efi"orts ; they were 

 in fair numbers, but excessively wild, and the open 

 plain lent no assistance. Rarely do these large and 

 handsome antelopes trust themselves wifhin forest or 

 bush, and, even if found therein, keep constantly on the 

 move, as though ever conscious of the dangers lurking 

 within covert. One evening (July 27), when my brother 

 and I had o-one out too-ether, we descried a dozen 

 kongoni feeding by the rushy foreshores of Lake 

 Xakuru, between the water and the forest-belt that 

 fringes it. While engaged on this stalk, I espied 

 beneath the trees on my right an animal that com- 

 pletely puzzled me. It was a great shaggy beast, very 



