2 M CASSELL-S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



of the Cirque Olympique, of Paris, have been charged with the supply of horses to princes and 

 sovereigns during any great official solemnity ; and these horses, like certain courtiers, have always 

 been at the service of every possible dynasty or shade of political opinion. Thus, in 1814, at the 

 temporary restoration of the Bourbons, a dapple-gray, called " La Noble," bore the Count d'Artois, 

 tin- future Charles X., on his entry into Paris, and, afterwards, the Dukes of Berri and Angouleme. 

 When Napoleon escaped from Elba, the same charger carried him at the time of his triumphal 

 return to Paris by torchlight. After the well-known "hundred days," this identical horse conveyed 

 into Paris the princes of the Bourbon family, deporting itself with the same pride and enthusiasm as 

 on former occasions. 



In Madame Tnssand's Exhibition there is the tail, handsomely mounted, of " Jaffa," the celebrated 

 charger of the Emperor Napoleon I., which was presented to him by Ali Pacha. He was white, and 

 stood fifteen hands high. He was of the pure desert breed of Arabs, and was ridden by the Emperor 

 at the memorable victory of Marengo, and on almost all the remarkable occasions of his life the last 

 time at the celebrated review in the famous Champ de Mai, in 1814. He was purchased and brought 

 to England, in the year 1823, and died in 1828, aged thirty-seven years, and was buried under a 

 handsome monument at Glastonbury, Cranbrook, Kent. 



THE ZEBRA.* 



A VIVID idea of this fierce, strong, fleet, and beautiful animal may be formed from the engraving we 

 give of it, to which little can be added in the way of description. It may be observed, however, that 

 in the male the ground-colour is yellowish fawn, in the female white, over which the black stripes are 

 dispersed with exquisite symmetry. It dwells in the mountain districts of Africa, from Abyssinia to 

 the South, where it often falls a prey to the lion, and to the savage natives, who regard its flesh as a 

 delicacy. 



THE QUAGGA.f 



THE Quagga is often seen in herds of Ivundreds, traversing the sultry plains of Southern Africa. It is 

 much less beautifully marked than the zebra, and its colours are less distinct. The shoulders are dark- 

 brown, with whitish transverse bars ; the hinder parts are light-brown, falling off to white beneath. 

 The name of this animal expresses the sound of its voice, which has some resemblance to the barking 

 of a dog. The Kaffirs and Bushmen consider it as delicious food ; nor is it less liked by the lion. It 

 may hereafter prove worth while to reclaim this creature, and to subject it to the service of man. A 

 pair of them used to be seen drawing a carriage in Hyde Park a sufficient proof of their being 

 tameable and tractable. 



THE WILD ASS.J 



THIS animal is mentioned at a very early period in the sacred records. The reader has probably been 

 struck by the beautiful and graphic description of it given in the Book of Job : "Who hath sent out 

 the wild ass free 1 or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass ? Whose house I have made the 

 wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He sconieth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth 

 he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he search eth after every 

 green thing." The wild ass is also alluded to by the prophet Jeremiah, and in other passages of 

 Scripture. 



The food of the wild asses consists of the saltest plants of the deserts, such as the atriplex, kali, 

 and c/tenopodium, and also the bitter milky tribes of herbs. They also prefer salt water to fresh. This 

 is exactly conformable to the words in the Book of Job already quoted, descriptive of " the barren 

 land" as their dwellings, which, according to Bochart, should be rendered "salt places." 



Equus zebra. Linnams. f Equus quagga. 



! Asmtu oniger. Asinus sylvestris. I'liny. Equiu onager. Brisson. Koulan, or wild ass. Pennant. Equus hcmionus, 

 t Kutchand the Indus. Sykes. Hemoine, or dziggtai. Lesson. Wild ass. Ball. In KLEIN'S Syxteme Naturrl ,Iu 

 tmmal they are named as follows: ASK SAT v AUK, tuintu sylvestrit, asini ftnis, or onager, which lasUferm is derived from 

 the Greek, and is eometimes spelt angra. 



