Qnagga and BurchelVs Zebra. 519 



femur and the tibia. In the striping of tliis region, indeed, 

 this specimen forcibly recalls the example of Wahlhergi in 

 the Tring Museum, in which the stripes on the lower portion 

 of the quarters are broken up into an irregular reticulated 

 pattern *. To maintain that the Tring specimen of Wahl- 

 hergi and the Paris specimen of DurchelU represent distinct 

 species, and to hold at the same time that the former belongs 

 to the same species as the types of Selousi and Qranti^ 

 obscures the plainest facts of affinity as testified by likeness ; 

 and the adoption of Dr. Trouessart's view regarding the 

 zebras in question, and the nomenclature it involves, renders 

 abortive one of the primary purposes of systematic naming — 

 that is to say, the expression of relationships, of which, in 

 this case at least, resemblances are the sole criteria. 



Touching the affinity between so-called " zebras " and 

 " qwaggas," Dr. Trouessart remarks that Burchell's zebra 

 approaches the quagga in pattern more than it approaches 

 its allies, the other zebras. The truth of this statement can 

 scarcely be admitted, for the likeness between BurchelU and 

 Wahlhergi is, on the whole, greater than the likeness between 

 BurchelU and the most '' zebra "-like of all the ''quaggas," 

 namely Lorenzi. Nevertheless it is gratifying to welcome an 

 adherent of the view that the differences between " Burchell's 

 zebra ^' and '' quaggas " are practically equivalent to the 

 differences between BurchelPs zebra and other zebras of the 

 same type, such as Chapman's. Dr. Trouessart, however, 

 does not admit specific identity between quaggas and 

 Burchell's zebras, for the alleged reason that the ground- 

 colour of the latter is white or clear grey without mixture of 

 red or yellow. It is difficult to find justification for this 

 argument, since Dr. Trouessart himself describes the ground- 

 colour of the quagga in the Paris Museum as white. More- 

 over, the tint of the ground-colour is not a specific character 

 in this group of Equidse ; and it is not true that it is always 

 white in BurchelU, as the literature on the subject conclusively 

 proves. For instance, although Gray described the type 

 specimen as white between the stripes, I pointed out ten 

 years ago that in the specimen in the Bristol Museum the 

 ground-colour on the body and hind-quarters is "dark ruddy 

 greyish brown " ; and in a stuffed specimen in the British 

 Museum the interspaces are heavily washed with yellowish 

 brown f. The same variability in tint is shown in Chapman's 



* See Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (G) xx. p. 45 (1897). 



t III tliis specimen the stripes on the hiud-quarters extend right down 

 to the level of the femoro-tibial joint and are more complete aud distinct 

 than in the Paris example. 



