190 



The Living Animals of the World 



Plioto hij W. P. Vando] 



{lii.ijcit's Fark. 



GREVY S ZKBRA. 



Tliid species of zebra coiues from the Galla country, and lias narrower and more numerous strij-.e 

 than tlie mountain-zebra. 



l)eing black and the muzzle 

 bright brown. Both hind and 

 f(jre legs are banded down to 

 the hoofs. The stripes on the 

 nock and body are narrower 

 and more numerous than in 

 Ihircliell's zebra, and on the 

 liindquarters the median 

 stripe, which runs down the 

 centre of the back fronr the 

 luane to the tail, is connected 

 with tlie ujtpermost of the 

 oblique longitudinal stripes by 

 a series of short horizontal 

 bars. The ears in this species 

 are much larger than in 

 liurchell's zebra. 



The true zebra seems 

 never to have lieen an in- 

 liabitant of the plains, like 

 all its congeners, but to have 

 confined its range entirely to 

 mountainous districts. Speaking on this point, Captain (afterwards Sir) Cornwallis Harris wrote 

 upwards of sixty years ago ; " This beautiful and wary animal never of its own iree will 

 descends into the plain, as errone(jusly asserted by all naturalists, and it therefore never herds 

 with either of its congeners, the quagga and Burchell's zebra, whose habitat is equallv limited to 

 the open and level lowlands. >Seekiug the wildest and most sequestered spots, the haughty troops 

 are exceedingly difficult of approach, as well on account of their watcliful habits and extreme 

 agility and fleetness of foot, as from the abrupt and inaccessible nature of their highland abode." 



An allied species, of which examples have been olitaineil liv ^Ir. G. W. Penrice, occurs in 

 Benguela, Portuguese West Africa. 



I once saw the carcase of a zebra stallion which liad lieen sent by rail to the Cape Town 

 Museum by a farmer living in the neiglibourhood of the village of Worcester. This animal 

 had come down fronr the mountains, and joined a troop of donkeys running on the farm. Its 

 intrusion was, however, resented by a male donkey, which fouglit with and overpowered it, and, 

 having seized it with its teeth by the back of the neck, held it first until it was secured by 

 the farmer and liis men. Tlie captured animal, however, refused food, and soon died, when its 

 carcase was sent to the Cajje Museum for preservation. 



Grevy's Zebka is the largest and perhaps the handsomest of all the zebras. This fine 

 animal is an inhabitant of Eastern Africa, its range extending from tlie central portion of 

 Somaliland southwards to the Tana Kiver. It apjiears to be plentiful in the country between 

 Mount Kenia and Lake Eudolph, but has not, I believe, been met with to the west of that 

 lake. Full-grown specimens of Grevy's zebra will stand from 14i to 15 hands at the shoulder, 

 with a girth of body immediately behind the shoulders of nearly 5 feet. The arrangement of 

 the stripes in this species differs considerably both from that of the mountain-zebra of the Cape 

 Colony and also from Burchell's zebra. The body-stripes are very narrow, numerous, and deep 

 black in colour, and are separated by equally narrow white bands. The longitudinal stripes 

 on the haunches are also shorter and finer than in any other species of zebra, and on the top of 

 the quarters there is a white unstriped spiace on each side of the median line which runs down 

 the centre of the back from the neck to the tail. The belly and insides of the thighs are 

 white, and the legs banded right down to the hoofs as in the mountain-zebra, and the ears 

 are as large as in that species. 



