ZEBRAS. 353 



frequent allusion to tlie similar habits of the Asiatic congeners 

 of this animal ; and in the vivid and startling picture of the effects 

 of drought, given in the book of Jeremiah, we are told that " the 

 wild asses did stand in the desolate places ; they sniffed up the 

 wind like dragons, and their eyes did fail because there was no 

 grass.' Bands of many hundreds are thus frequently seen during 

 their migration from the'dreary and desolate plains of some portion 

 of the interior which has formed their secluded abode, seeking 

 for those more luxuriant pastures, where, during the summer 

 months, various herbs thrust forth their leaves and flowers, to 

 form a green carpet, spangled with hues the most brilliant and 

 diversified." 



Mr. T. E. Buckley, in a paper read before the Zoological 

 Society of London, in 1876, " On the Geographical Distribution of 

 South African Animals," stated that the animal that is now com- 

 monly called quagga is in reality Burchell's zebra, and he sur- 

 mises that since Harris wrote, it may have become extinct, for 

 the few animals of the genus to be now seen on the plains are not 

 the true quaggas. " Some few years ago the three species of this 

 genus were in little repute for their skins as compared with the 

 wilde-beest and blessbok ; but of late years it has been dis- 

 covered that they are of great use for, I believe, connecting- 

 bands for machinery ; at any rate, their value increased so much 

 that they have been shot down, until you may go for a week 

 through the ' High Veldt ' and not see one, although there will be 

 thousands of other animals." 



This is a very different picture to the one so frequently drawn by 

 the travellers who journeyed through these regions thirty or forty 

 years ago. Then the herds of these zebras were innumerable. In 

 fact, it is the same old story. Wild animals and native races dis- 

 appear before the white man when he seeks their land. To any one 

 reading some of the recent works on South Africa, and contrast- 

 ing the descriptions with similar works of previous dates, it must 

 become painfully evident that the wild animals of the country are 

 doomed. The perpetual hunting they are now subjected to, and the 

 wholesale destruction the modern fire-arms enable both the Euro- 

 pean sportsman and the Hottentot savage to accomplish with 



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