1909.] ON UNRECORDED SPECIMENS OF THE QUAGGA. 563 



Africa) until they passed into the Quaggas of Cape Colony, so on 

 the north the Grevy with its ass-like ears comes closer in that 

 respect to its neighbours, the asses of Somaliland and Abyssinia, 

 whilst its hoof resembles that of the hoi^se more than those of the 

 other zebras. The difference between its hoof and those of the 

 two other species may be due to the fact that it is not a 

 mountain animal, but always keeps rather to the low and often 

 swampy ground. 



2, Contributions to the Study o£ the Equidse ; ii. On 

 Hitherto Unrecorded Specimens o£ Equus quagga. By 

 Prof. William Ridgeway, M.A., Sc.D., F.B.A.^, LL.D., 



Litt.D.* 



[Received April 21, 1909.] 



(Text-figures 156-180.) 



In view of the scantiness of our existing material for arriving 

 at any conclusions resj)ecting the now extinct E. quagga, which 

 once roamed the plains of Cape Colony in vast herds, and was 

 found in Orange River and Griqualand "West, it is most important 

 to make known any yet surviving specimens which have hitherto 

 escaped the vigilance of zoologists. In my ' Origin and Influence 

 of the Thoroughbred Horse' (pp. 438-9, figs. 131-3) I was 

 enabled to publish the head and neck of a Quagga, preserved in 

 the Elgin Museum (to which my attention had been called by my 

 friend Dr. Duckworth) (text-fig. 172, p. 581). This specimen 

 shows a white ground-colour in the middle of the forehead like 

 the typical specimen described by Edwaixls in 1758 (text-fig, 173, 

 p. 582). 



I. — By the kindness of another friend, Mr. R. C. Punnett, F.Z.S., 

 Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, I am now able to describe 

 and figure for the first time an entire specimen hitherto 

 neglected by zoologists. This specimen is preserved in the 

 Naturgeschichtes Museum at Basel, and for the photograph from 

 which the illustration (text-fig. 157, p. 565) is taken as well as for 

 the description I am indebted to the great kindness of Dr. Fritz 

 Sarasin, the Director of that Museum. The specimen (a female) 

 was presented to the Basel Museum in 1864 by a missionary 

 called Gysin, who resided at Silo (Shiloh), Cape Colony. The 

 fact that in this case, as well as in that of the Elgin specimen, 

 we have some indication of the locality where the animal was 

 killed is of considerable importance, inasmuch as few of the 

 other siDecimens as yet known have any provenance. 



Dr. Sarasin writes as follows : — " The ground-colour of the 

 centre of the forehead is not white and not lighter than the 

 ground-colour of other parts of the face and neck. The colour 

 of the stripes on head, neck, and back is bright chestnut (' hell 

 kastanienbraun,' • brun marron clair '). The colour of the non- 



* Communicated by Dr. P. Chalmees Mitchell, M.A., F.R.S.. F.Z.S. 



.^9* 



