Tin: ANxNALS 



A.SO 



MAGAZINE OF iNATURAL HISTORY. 



[SEVENTH SERIES.] 

 No. 83. NOVIiiMBKR 1904. 



XLV. — The Cape Colony Qaaggas. By H. I. PocOCK, 

 Superintendent of the Zoological Society^s Gardens, late 

 Assistant in the Zoological Department of the British 

 Museum. 



[Plates IX. & X.] 



I. Introduction. 



In an interesting and sug2;estive paper in the P. Z. S. for 

 this year (vol. i. pp. 426-431), Mr. Lydekker discusses the 

 presence of a preorbital pit in the skulls of recent iiorses, and 

 incidentally attempts to establish two conclusions : (1) that 

 all the genuine Quaggas known to us either from skins or 

 ]jhotogiaphs or figures, with the ])ossible exception of tlie 

 example at Vienna, are subspccifically identical, the ad- 

 mittedly great differences between some of the types being 

 due either to individual variation or to fading from exposure 

 to light or to carelessness in drawing ; (2) that the species 

 they constitute differs specifically from all the forms of tho 

 animal commonly known as Burchell's Zebra. These, 

 presumably, are the views of the older generation of natura- 

 li.sts, to which Mr. Lydekker has reverted. But since I 

 have long been of a diflerent opinion on both these points, 

 I avail myself of the opportunity afforded by the i)ublica- 

 tiun of ]\lr. Lydekker's paper to state at greater lenglli 

 Ann. ii- Mag. X. Hist. Scr. 7. Vol xiv. 22 



