■988 MR. R. I. POCOCK ON HYBRID FOALS. 



&s if it were in very poor condition, the ribs standing out through 

 the skin, but closer inspection showed that in reality the skin 

 of the flanks was disposed in thick, permanent folds, arranged 

 roughly like ribs. Thinking it possible that these differences 

 might indicate the existence of distinct races of the Rhinoceros, 

 on returning to London he had at once examined the Society's 

 own pair of examples of this species, both of which had come from 

 British East Africa, probably somewhere near Nairobi. The 

 female, purchased in 1906, had the eai^s unf ringed with hair, like 

 those of Mr. Hagenbeck's female, but the rib-folds on the skin 

 were no more than indicated, although there were very heavy 

 permanent folds round the neck. In the male, obtained in the 

 ■current year from Nairobi as part of the King's African Collec- 

 tion, the ears were fringed with hair as in Mr. Hagenbeck's male, 

 whilst the rib-like folds on the skin were extremely strongly marked, 

 as in the case of Mr. Hagenbeck's female. The presence or 

 absence of the marginal fringe on the ears was therefore probably 

 either an individual or a sexual character. In the absence of 

 knowledge of the exact provenance of all the four examples, 

 nothing could be said as to whether or no the presence of the rib- 

 like permanent folds on the body were racial. Their existence, 

 however, as well as the presence of the heavy fold round the 

 neck, showed that it was not correct to distinguish the Asiatic 

 Rhinoceroses from those of Africa by the presence in the former 

 of permanent skin-folds. The neck-fold was almost identical ir 

 both, whilst, although they were differently arranged, deep body- 

 folds occurred in both. 



Mr. R. I. PococK, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Superintendent of the 

 Society's Gardens, exhibited a photograph (text-fig. 201) of a 

 foal born in the Gardens on June 21st and bred between a male 

 Somaliland Wild Ass [Equvs asinus somaliensis) and a female 

 Mountain Zebra [Eqims zebra) and made the following remarks : — 



" The period of gestation, dating from the day of service to the 

 birth, was 12| months. The general colour of the foal is sandy 

 fawn, the ground tint of the legs being markedly whiter. The 

 ears are long, as in both parents, and have a large apical black 

 patch, fading inferiorly in fi^ont to brown, and a brown transverse 

 basal stripe, running upwards mesially ; a corresponding basal 

 stripe is present on the ear in the dam but not in the sire. 

 There is no white tip to the ear such as is seen in all Zebras. 

 The lips and area round the nostrils are black, and there is no 

 white on the muzzle, such as is seen in all typical Asses. Half- 

 way between the forehead and the muzzle there is an area 

 covered with many close-set narrow brown stripes and some very 

 faint stripes are traceable on the lower edges of the under jaw. 

 The mane is like that of the sire (text-fig. 202), black in the centre 

 and sandy fawn externally, the pale external portion showing no 

 trace of breaking up into evenly spaced tufts, such as are seen in 



