174 VERTEBRATES. 



much regularity and symmetry, that it seems as if Nature had 

 made use of the rule and compass to paint it. • These alternate 

 bands of black and white are so much the more singular, as they 

 are straight, parallel, and very exactly divided, like a striped stuff; 

 and as they, in other parts, extend themselves not only over the 

 body, but over the head, the thighs, the legs, and even the ears 

 and the tail; so that, at a distance, this animal appears as if he 

 was surrounded with little fillets, which some person had disposed, 

 in a regular manner, over every part of the body. In the females, 

 these bands are alternately black and white ; in the male, they are 

 brown and yellow, but always of a lively and brilliant mixture, 

 upon a short, fine, and thick hair ; the lustre of which still more 

 increases the beauty of the colors. The Zebra is, in general, less 

 than the horse, and larger than the ass ; and, although it has often 

 been compared to those two animals, and called the WUd Horse, 

 and the Striped Ass, it is a copy neither of the one nor the other, 

 and might rather be called their model. It is very wild and sus- 

 picious, carefully placing sentinels to look out for danger. Not- 

 withstanding these precautions, several zebras have been taken 

 alive, and some, in spite of their vicious habits, have been trained 

 to draw a carriage. In all probability it might be domesticated 

 like the ass. 



The Quagga, also a native of South Africa, somewhat re- 

 sembles the zebra, but is easily distinguished from that animal by 

 the paucity and dullness of its stripes, which do not reach the 

 hind quarters or legs. Over the haunches and shoulders these 

 stripes form a kind of bifurcation, between the divisions of which 

 there are a few transverse lines of the same color ; but these sud- 

 denly and abruptly cease, and are not continued on the legs, which 

 are perfectly white. Along the back there is a narrow longitudinal 

 line, bordered on each side with white. The mane is throughout 

 broadly and deeply tipped with black, and is marked by a continu- 

 ation of the transverse bands of the neck. The lines of the face 

 are narrow and beautifully regular ; from the centre of the fore- 

 head they radiate downwards over the eyes ; along the front of the 

 muzzle they are longitudinal, the outer ones having a curve out- 



