OEDEE OF PACHYDEEMATA. 221 



employed to catch it, or it is sliot by lying in ambush behind 

 some eminence near the salt meadows, which it loves to frequent. 



In 1838, M. Dussumier, a ship-owner of Bordeaux, procured 

 for the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, three adults, a male and two 

 females. These animals had never figured in this menagerie before, 

 and since that time no other individual of the breed has been 

 brought there ; but the three specimens which they possessed 

 were not long before they bore young. Not only did they mul- 

 tiply, but were crossed both with male and female Asses. 



When the question arose as to utilising this animal, it was for a 

 moment feared that it would be impossible either to break or 

 train it ; at the present day, however, we know diiferently ; for 

 one from the Jardin des Plantes in a few months' handling became 

 sufficiently docile to be driven from Paris to Versailles. Accord- 

 ing to M. Richard (du Cantal), they present no more difiiculty 

 in breaking than Horses which are reared in our meadows, and 

 permitted to run at large to the age of four or five years. Two 

 individuals from the menagerie of the Museum, which were 

 entrusted to the care of M. de Pontalba, were ridden without 

 difiiculty after a very short tutelage. 



Zehra {Eqims Zebra, Linn.). — The Zebra is larger than the 

 Wild Ass, sometimes attaining the size of a mature Arab Horse. 

 The richness of its coat, which almost every one has had an 

 opportunity of admiring at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and 

 the Zoological Gardens in London, both of which institutions 

 possess living specimens, would sufiice to distinguish this creature 

 from every other species of the same genus. The ground colour 

 is white tinged with yellow, marked with stripes of black and of 

 blackish brown. 



This elegant animal is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 probably the whole of southern, and a part of eastern, Africa. 

 Travellers state that they have met with it in Congo, Guinea, 

 and Abyssinia. It delights in mountainous countries, and, 

 although it is less rapid than the Wild Ass, its paces are so 

 good that the best Horses are alone able to overtake it. 



The Zebra lives in droves, but is very shy in its nature ; it is 

 endowed with powers of sight that enable it to perceive from 

 great distances the approach of hunters. It is, consequently, very 

 difficult to capture a mature living specimen. 



