1905.] ON OLD PICTURES OP THE ZEBRA . 145 



and canals of the Seal are most like those of the bird and the fish ; 

 this fact thus tending to support the view that I have just 

 suggested. 



In Man the faculty of directing himself by means of this 

 sense seems to have atrophied from want of use, but even in 

 this case it has been pointed out that in the savage state the 

 faculty is fairly keen. Some mammals display it occasionally in 

 a remarkable manner, as in those instances in which cats and dogs 

 find their way home from long distances, when the sense of sight 

 could not have availed them. The homing of pigeons seems to 

 me to be another manifestation of the same faculty. 



Mr. Henry Scherren, F.Z.S., called attention to two illustra- 

 tions of a Zebra in Aldi-ovandus (1642) and the ' Oommentarius ' 

 of Ludolphvxs, copies of which were in the Society's library. 

 Although they diftered so widely, the text seemed to indicate that 

 they were intended for the same species — the Abyssinian Zebra ; 

 and with respect to the plate in Ludolphus there could, from the 

 text, be no doubt that this was the case. A translation of the 

 passage in the ' Historia ^thiopica,' giving the description by 

 Tellez of this Zebra, had appeared in the ' Proceedings'* (1901, 

 ii. p. 2). In the ' Oommentarius,' p. 150, Ludolphus has brought 

 . together some references to the Abyssinian Zebra. First he quotes 

 Philostorgius (lib. iii. ch. 2), with this Latin version : — 



" Haec ipsa regio fert asinos agrestes maximos, et pelle versi- 

 colores admodum, albo nigroque colore baud parum interstinctos : 

 sed et zonae iis qusedam sunt a spina dorsi ad latera ventremque 

 usque demissee, indeque divisse, et convolvulis quibusdam inter 

 se implicatfe, mirum quendam et peregrinum exhibent nexum et 

 varietatem." 



Gothofredus (Jacques Godefroy, 1587-1652) translated the 

 Greek orovs aypiovs and the Latin asinos agrestes by onagros, as 

 did Bochart. But the former added : " Neminem alias varietatem 

 eorum ita describere." Ludolphus presses home the argument 

 in this wise : If Philostorgius had meant ordinary wild asses he 

 would have vised a single Greek word. 



He then refers to Rome, " whither all marvellous things are 

 sent," quoting Martial (Epigram, xiii. 101), in which onager with 

 the epithet pidcher occurs. It is noted that no one would rightly 

 call a wild ass " beautiful," though the word exactly suits an 

 Abyssinian Zebra. Virgil (Georg. iii. 409) calls these animals 



" Ssepe etiam cuvsu timidos agitabis onagros " ; 



and in the Vulgate (Osee, viii. 9) the epithet " solitarius " is used. 

 Ludolphus anticipated recent writers in suggesting that this 

 Zebra had been brovight to Rome ; but he does not mention the 

 hippotigris. The collection of all references to the hippotigris 



* The passage is marred by a mistranslation in the English version (1682) by "J. P." 

 The sentence, " A present of great esteem, and frequently given to the kings of 

 Habessiuia," misrepresents what Ludolphus wrote : "In clonis Eegum Habessinias 

 frequens et prsecipuum esse solet." 



10* 



