192 



The Living Animals of the World 



Grevy's zebra is, as a rule, an iiihaliitant of open or tliinly wooded country, and it 

 appears to a\'oid anything in the nature of thick cover. In Central Sonialiland ^lajor ,S\vayne 

 met with it on low plateaux some 2,500 feet above sea-level, the sides of which fell in broken 

 ravines to the river-valleys. Tliis country is described as broken and hilly, and here Grevy's 

 zebras were met with in small droves of aliout half a dozen. In the country between Mount 

 Kenia and Lake Eudolph, Mr. A. H. Neumann frequently met with herds of Grevy's and 

 Burchcll's zebras consorting together. The contrast between the two species when thus seen 

 side by side was very marked, the former animals looking like horses among a flock of ponies. 

 Mr. Neumann never observed stallions of the two spjecies fighting together, but on the other 

 hand he states that the stallions of tlie larger species fight viciously amongst themselves 

 for possession nf the mares. Grevy's zebras seem never to collect in large herds, more than 

 twenty, or at the outside thirty, being very seldom seen together. 



Although this species is an inhabitant of arid plains and bare stony hills where the herbage 



is short, it requires 

 to drink daily, and 

 is never therefore 

 found at any great 

 distance from water. 

 The cry of 

 Grevy's zebra is 

 stated to be quite 

 different from that 

 of Burchell's. 3Ir. 

 Neumann describes 

 it as a \"ery hoarse 

 kind of grunt, varied 

 b y s o rn e t h i n g 

 approaching to a 

 whistle, the grunts 

 being long drawn 

 out, and divided by 

 the shrill whistling 

 sound, as if the latter 

 were made by draw- 

 ing in the breath 

 which had been ex- 

 p e 1 le d during the 

 sustained grunt. 



Like all other 

 species of the genus to wliich they belong, Grevy's zebras, especially the mares when in foal, 

 become very fat at certain seasons of tlie year, and tlieir flesh is much appreciated both by 

 natives and lions, the latter preying on them and their smaller congeners, Burchell's zebras, 

 in preference to any other animal, now that the rinderpest has almost exterminated the great 

 herds of buff"alo which once roamed in countless numbers all over East Central Africa. 



Bl'KCHell's Zebra once inhal)ited the whole of South-western, South-eastern, Central, and 

 Eastern Africa from the Orange Eiver to Lake Rudoli)h ; and though it has long ceased to 

 exist in the more southerly portions of its range, it is still the most numerous and the best 

 known of all the species of zebra. 



The typical form of tliis s]iecies was first met with early last centurv by Dr. Burchell in 

 Southern Beclmanaland. In tliis form the legs are white Ijeiow the knees and hocks, and the 

 body-stripes do not join the median stripe of tlie belly. In examples met with farther north 

 the legs are striped down to the hoofs and the body-stripes join the belly-stripe. South of 



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I'lwlo III/ J. T. i-nn,iii.,-i] 



THE HON. WALTER ROTHSCHILD'S TEAir OF ZEBRAS. 

 Mr. Rothschild ,vas practically the first Englishman t.. hreak in zebras t„ harness. At une time these animal 



were thoui;ht to be quite untamable. 



