1904.] AND MARKINGS OF THE QUAGGA. 



429 



the number of dark bars varies from five to nine, thus making tlie 

 centre of the diamond a dark Hue *. All this tends to confirm 

 my view of the specific distinctness of E. hurchelli from E. quagga. 



I may here take the opportunity of referring to another point 

 in connection with the markings and coloration of the Quagga. 

 Both Mr. Pocock f and myself + have suggested that the Quaggas 

 figured by Edwards in the work cited above, by Harris in the 

 ' Game Animals of South Africa,' and by Hamilton Smith in 

 Jardine's ' ISfaturalist's Library,' may be subspecifically distinct 

 from the one figui-ed by York and the specimens pi-eserved in 

 various museums ; and I have even gone so far as to propose 

 separate racial names for two of the lattei-. Apparently 

 Oornwallis Harris was also of the same opinion, as at the end 

 of his description of the Quagga he gives an illustration of the skin 

 " of an animal exhibited in the Zoological Gardens as a Quagga." 



Having obtained a considei'able number of photogi-aphs, I am 

 now very doubtful whether the presumed division into races is 

 justifiable, although it is possible that the Vienna specimen § may 

 be distinct ; and, despite certain differences in regai-d to the width 

 and backward extension of the sti-ipes and also the relative pro- 

 portions of the white and fawn areas, I am disposed to regard the 

 Quaggas figured by Edwards, Harris, and Smith as representing 

 the same type of animal. Incorrect drawing and colouring (which 

 is noticeable in many of Harris's plates) wiU, I think, account for 

 most, if not all of the diffei-ences. 



AU these plates repi'esent a pale rufous or fawn-coloured 

 animal, with white limbs and underjjarts, and black stripes on 

 the head, neck, and fore-quarters ; such stripes extending in 

 Edwards's figure backwards on to the flanks and ci-oup, where they 

 break up into lines of spots. 



Erom this general type I a,m unable to separate the two Quaggas 

 drawn by Waterhouse Hawkins from specimens living at Knowsley, 

 and figured by Gray in his ' Knowsley Menagerie.' It is true 

 that their grovmd- colour is veiy much less rufous than in the 

 specimens figured by Edwaixls, Harris, and Smith, but this may 

 pei-haps be accounted for either by more accurate attention to 

 nature, or by the European climate having tended to dai-ken the 

 Knowsley specimens. Be this as it may, the latter are distinctly 

 and unmistakably fawn-coloured animals with blackish- brown 

 stripes ; such stripes extending farther back on the quaitei-s in one 

 specimen than in the othei-. 



On the other hand, in the British Museum mounted specimen 

 and all the available photogi-aphs of Quaggas (whether from living 

 or stufifed examples) the head and fore-quarters display white 

 stripes separated by broader dark intervals which appear to be of 



* This is shown in the figure of ^. burchelli in Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1903, ii. 

 p. 197. 

 t Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 6, vol. xx. p. 38 (1897). 

 X ' Knowledge,' vol. xxv. p. 20 (1903). 

 § Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1902, i. p. 32. 



