12 



figure represents a pair of the Burchell zebras, of the Grant species, with a dorsal 

 stripe, with brilliant patterns on the flanks, as photographed in the New York 

 Zoological Park. I had the camera placed above, so as to show this remarkable 

 gridiron of the back. Fig. 24. 



All domesticated breeds of the horse show, at one period or another in 

 life, either directly or through reversion, that they were similarly striped, so 

 that the probabilities are that the ancestors of the modern horse were striped 

 animals, and we see in a few transition forms how a striped animal can gradually 

 be converted into a non-striped animal. In the true Burchell, inhabiting not a 

 forest region but a sandy open region; the stripes have faded entirely out of 

 the lower limbs; the lateral stripe is paler than the Grant, and the under 

 stripes are becoming broader. Another Burchell, showing the under spaces of 

 the body assuming a ruddy brown tint, which would naturally compare with the 

 bay color of our horses. We observe that this tint harmonizes with the brown- 

 ish tint of the desert back-ground. In this harmony of color we have the true 

 significance of the origin of the simple hay coloring of our modern horses. In 

 the Quagga, so called by the Dutch, the striping has entirely disappear- 

 ed from the posterior portion of the body and is confined to the neck, while the 

 entire back has assumed a reddish brown hue, like the rich bay of the modern 

 horse. The Quagga is now entirely extinct, having been killed off for food and 

 for its hide. 



The third type of African zebra is the so-called Grevy, named after a Pres- 

 ident of the French Republic, who received one of those animals from the King 

 of Abyssinia. It is interesting that our photograph is from a specimen sent by 

 the King of Abyssinia to President Roosevelt, and housed for a short period en 

 route within the walls of the New York Zoological Park. This animal is the 

 noblest of the zebras, standing 15 to 15 1-2 hands high at the withers. It is 

 finely striped, as compared with the coarse banding of the Burchell or Grant zebras. 

 A similar fine striping is sometimes seen in the foal of the best types of modern 

 thoroughbreds, but it is transitory and fades out soon after birth. A front view 

 of the Grevy, shows the long expanding ears, which are unlike those of any 

 of the existing horses, yet my friend Ridgeway was at one time persuaded that 

 the horse is closely related to this Grevy zebra, an animal, by the way, capable 

 of domestication, and one' which will undoubtedly be made use of in the later 

 development of Africa. 



In general, the zebra coloring tends to conceal the animal in the sur- 

 rounding country, and we have as the universal testimony of sportsmen and 

 travelers the fact that the zebra, while the most conspicuous of animals when 

 seen out of its natural surroundings, is one of the least conspicuous when seen 

 in its natural surroundings, especially by daylight, by high sunlight and by 

 moonlight. I had an opportunity a year ago in the park of his Grace the Duke 

 of Bedford, to see three or four of these Grevy zebras standing in the shade of 

 a cluster of oak trees, and I can testify to the fact that they were nearly invis- 

 ible ; at the first glance your eye did not catch them, whereas your eye would have 

 been immediately struck by the presence of black or white horses, or even by 

 a horse of a single uniform bay color. 



