Mountain Zebra 



So far as I know, these zebras, or their descendants 



97 



my friends' 

 still there. 



The zebra — probably the recently re-discovered species known as 

 Grevy's — was certainly familiar to the ancients under the designation 

 hippotigris (tiger-horse)— by no means a bad name for the animal— and was 

 occasionally exhibited in the Roman amphitheatre. Yet, even at the end 

 of the last century, very little seems to have been known of the animal in 

 modern Europe. Skins were usually 

 sold at furriers' shops as "sea-horse 

 hides," and the impression seems to 

 have been prevalent that the half- 

 striped quagga, a totally distinct species, 

 was merely the female of the zebra 

 itself. In the old days in Cape Colony 

 the Boers were in the habit of hunting 

 these animals for the sake of their hides, 

 and of capturing the young alive for the 

 purpose of being broken to harness. 

 The adult true zebra is practically un- 

 tamable, and several instances are on 

 record of the ferocity of these creatures. 

 The Boers, to save themselves the trouble p ' 92 ' 



of shooting, occasionally succeeded in driving a number of these animals over 

 the edge of a precipice, thus securing the skins at their leisure. Pringle 

 mentions the instance of a young Boer who was engaged in this kind of 

 chase. A zebra turned on him, seized him by the foot with its teeth, and 

 actually succeeded in biting and tearing it from the limb. The young 

 Dutchman subsequently died of the wound. But when captured quite 

 young, even the mountain zebra seems to have been capable of being 

 broken and becoming amenable to harness. It is probable, however, that 



