354 WILD ANIMALS. 



little trouble, are rapidly clearing the fertile plains of South 

 Africa of the one feature that made them so renowned— the herds 

 of animals which roamed in undisturbed freedom over them, 

 that they will soon become in this respect as desolate as the 

 prairies of America now that the buffaloes are no more, and only 

 the thousands of small heaps of bleaching bones that dot the land 

 are left to tell the tale of indiscriminate and ruthless slaughter. 



Burchell, on many occasions during his travels, stood in wonder 

 and gazed upon the vast number of quaggas that flew before his 

 party, and the expressions of his admiration of their beautiful 

 appearance, and the life they gave the scenery, crop up every 

 now and again in his writings. Harris also remarks that in one 

 place he passed through a park of magnificent camelthorn-trees, 

 many of them groaning under the huge nest of the social gros- 

 beak, whilst others were decorated with green clusters of mistletoe, 

 the bright scarlet berries of which were highly ornamental. 

 Here he perceived large herds of quaggas and brindled gnoos, 

 which continued to join each other, until the whole plain seemed 

 alive. He describes the clatter of their hoofs as perfectly 

 astounding. " I could compare it to nothing but to the din 

 of a tremendous charge of cavalry, or the rushing of a mighty 

 tempest. I could not estimate the accumulated number at less 

 than fifteen thousand, a great extent of country being actually 

 chequered black and white with their congregated masses. As 

 the panic caused by the report of our rifles extended, clouds of 

 dust hovered over them, and the long necks of troops of ostriches 

 were also to be seen, towering above the heads of their less 

 gigantic neighbours, and sailing past with astonishing rapidity- 

 Groups of purple sassaybes and brilliant red and yellow harte- 

 beests likewise lent their aid to complete the picture, which must 

 have been seen to be .properly understood, and which beggars 

 all attempt at description." 



The quagga is not such a fierce-dispositioned animal as the 

 zebra, and in consequence submits to man's control more readily ; 

 it is, in fact, of the whole family, unquestionably the species that 

 is best calculated for domestication. 



They have frequently bred in captivity, and have sometimes 



