272 



THE ZEBRA. 



SUPPLEMENT. 



The afs, either in a domeftic or wild ftate, is 

 found in almoft every warm and temperate cli- 

 mate of the Old Continent, and exifted not in 

 the New when it was firft difcovered. But the 

 fpecies, after being tranfported thither from Eu- 

 rope, has now fubfifted and multiplied greatly in 

 America, during more than two centuries ; fo 

 that, at prefent, it is almoft equally diffufed over 

 the four quarters of the globe. The zebra, on 

 the contrary, which was brought to us from the 

 Cape of Good Hope, feems to be a fpecies limit- 

 ed to the fouthern regions of Africa ; though 

 Lopez aflerts, that the zebras are more frequent 

 in Barbary than in Congo, and though Dapper 

 relates that troops of them are found in the 

 forefts of Angola. 



This beautiful animal, which, both from the 

 variety of its colours and the elegance of its fi- 

 gure, is fo fuperior to the afs, feems, notwith- 

 standing, to be nearly of the fame fpecies ; fince 

 mod travellers give it the name of the ftriped 

 afs, becaufe, at firft fight, they are ftruck with 

 its fuperior refemblance, both in fize and figure, 

 to the afs than to the horfe ; for it was not with 

 the fnall common afTes that they compared the 

 zebra, but with the largeft and moft beautiful of 



the 



