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NOTE ON GREVY’S ZEBRA (EQUUS GREVII), 
By LiEuT.Co.one. H. D. Otivier, B.E., F.Z.S, 
(With a Photograph.) 
(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 9th October, 1900.) 
I wonder whether any of our members know a book on Natural History 
by the Rev. J. C. Wood, which came out in parts in the early Sixties ? Well, 
I was brought up on that book, with a dash here and again of Livingstone’s 
Travels, and Moffat’s Adventures, It is, I think, this course of literature that 
is responsible for my strong desire, to see, at all events,a Zebra in its wild 
state, the desire to shoot one, if I did see it, must I fear, have been due to 
something born with me, for “ shikari nascitur non fit” is quite as true as the 
usual proverb, 
_ L well remember those early pictures representing the plains of Africa 
teeming with endless herds of game, pictures, I believe, in no way exaggera- 
tions of the truth, and in which there were inter alia great herds of Zebra, 
ITremember too that their shapes resembled nothing quite so much as the 
horses on the Parthenon, with their thick necks and hogged manes. So 
last year when I went to Somali Land one of my main objects was to get to 
the Zebra country, to see the Zebra for myself, and in due course I not only 
saw my first Zebra but shot him, 
‘The shape was the same as the pictures represented and the stripes were 
the same or nearly so, but the large herds and the open plains were not to be 
found, It is possible that elsewhere the Quagga {now nearly extinct), or 
Burchell’s Zebra, which are the species common in South Africa, do move in 
more open country, and in larger herds ; but Grévy’s Zebra, which is the ani- 
mal I am talking about now, and the only one found in the Somali Land, is 
certainly disappointing in this respect, 
Gréyy’s Zebra was named by a Frenchman from a specimen in the Jardin 
des plantes at Paris ; the first specimen, which ever reached England, arrived 
there about this time last year, when a pairof them were sent by King 
Menalik to the Queen. One wasa male who was too old to travel and 
arrived in bad condition and is since dead ; the other, the female, is still 
alive. 
This Zebra stands about 5 feet high and is very beautifully marked. The 
markings on the head are especially curious and apparently almost precisely 
similar in various specimens, The stripes are different from those in Burchell’s 
Zebra and inthe Quagga, which latter I believe is not striped throughout ; 
in Burchell’s Zebra the stripes seem to be broader and fewer, and the animal 
is smaller I believe. But Iam not sufficiently acquainted with the South 
African species to explain where the exact difference lies, I must trust to 
my friend Dr. Sclater’s dictum that there is a great difference in the mark- 
ings, When seen in the jungle the stripes are not very distinct, and the 
general impression is of a light grey. anima], The hoofs seem to be very 
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