THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY. 105 



figure (although striped) is the figure of a cobby 

 horse, with a horse's mane and tail. 



According to Tellez, the Great Mogul gave 

 2,000 ducats for a zebra. But Nanendorf relates 

 that the Governor of Batavia having sent one of 

 these animals (presented to him by an Abyssinian 

 Ambassador) to the Emperor of China, that monarch 

 sent the Dutch East India Company in return ten 

 thousand " Tael " of silver and thirty night gowns, 

 valued altogether at 160,000 crowns. 



Such briefly is the lore I have been able to collect 

 concerning this most interesting, and even now, 

 almost unknown animal. 



The first reliable portrait of the true zebra occurs 

 in " Brooks' Natural History," pubhshed in 1760. 

 In this curious old work (a copy of which I have by 

 me), full of errors though it is in many places, there 

 is a really striking one of Equus montanus. This 

 wood-cut appears to have been taken from a living 

 specimen at Kew, formerly in the possession of 

 Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III. 

 Although the picture apparently indicates the true 

 zebra, I cannot reconcile with it the description given 

 in the letterpress, which reads more like a description 

 of Burchell's variety. The author has, I think, 

 confused the varieties, and has taken Burchell's 

 zebra to be the female, and the true zebra to be 

 the male. 



In the year 1887, a young but mature true zebra 

 was captured in the mountains of Achter Sneeuwberg, 

 in the district of Graaff Reinet, and was afterwards 

 photographed. I obtained, with some difficulty, a 

 copy of this photograph, which is here reproduced. 

 So far as I know, this is the only representation of 



