THE MOUNTAIN ZEBRA. 39 



to learn the habits of the mountain zebra it is necessary to 

 turn to older writers^ for it is now so scarce that it has 

 even been supposed to be extinct in the district. For- 

 tunately we have very satisfactory accounts of it in 

 comparatively recent writers. In the magnificent folio on 

 the game and wild animals of Southern Africa^ published 

 by Capt. W. Cornwallis Harris in 1840^ a very full descrip- 

 tion of this animal is given. Of its habits Capt. Harris 

 writes as follows : 



"Eestricted to the mountainous districts of Africa, from 

 Abyssinia to the southernmost portions of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, this beautiful and wary animal never of its own free 

 will descends into the plains, as erroneously asserted by 

 naturalists, and it therefore never herds with either of its 

 congeners, the quagga and Burchell's zebra, whose habitat is 

 equally limited to the open and level lowland. Seeking the 

 wildest and most sequestered spots, the haughty troops are 

 exceedmgly difficult to approach, as well on account of their 

 watchful habits and extreme agility and fleetness of foot as 

 from the abrupt and inaccessible nature of their highland 

 abode. Under the special charge of a sentinel, so posted on 

 some adjacent crag as to command a view of every avenue of 

 approach, the chequered herd whom 'painted skins adorn,' 

 is to be viewed perambulating some rocky ledge, on which the 

 rifle ball alone can reach them. No sooner has the note of 

 alarm been sounded by the vidette, than, pricking their long 

 ears, the whole flock hurry forward to ascertain the nature of 

 the approaching danger, and, having gazed a moment at the 

 advancing hunter, whisking their brindled tails aloft, belter 

 skelter away they thunder, down craggy precipices and over 

 J awning ravines, where no less agile foot could dare to follow 

 them." 



Burchell, who was well acquainted with both this and 

 the other species which was named after him, calls 

 attention to the constricted character of its hoofs, which 



