TELEGONY AND EEVEESION. 



79 



(Fig. 20). To admit of further comparison with the hybrids 

 it is necessary that I should also desci-ibe at some length 

 the stripes on the body of Matopo. Not only are no two 

 individuals of any given species or variety of zebras alike 

 in their marking, but in no single individual is the pattern 

 the same on both sides.* But notwithstanding the varia- 



FiG. 22. 



Skin, Somali Zebra. 



tion in individual zebras, and the extreme cases of varia- 

 tion within the same species, it is possible to recognise 



* As far as I can learn, want of symmetry in tlie coloration of plants 

 and animals is comparatively common. On the other hand, in plants and 

 probably also in animals, a point is eventually reached in the difference of 

 the two sides which is prejudicial to the life of the variety or species. 

 Were not this the case, wild animals would doubtless be as asymmetrical 

 in their coloration as our artificially protected domestic animals. While 

 intercrossinn; makes for asymmetry, inbreeding; seems to lead to symmetry 

 "in the markings. Mr. Prazak tells me the Craddock, an inbred race of 

 mountain zebras, are remarkably symmetrical in their markings. 



