44 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



already almost totally disappeared from the open pastures of the 

 Albany district of Cape Colony, to which they had formerly 

 given life and interest. This may be taken as the first definite 

 mention of the retreat of the true Quagga before advancing 

 civilization — a merely natural though regrettable result of the 

 progress of the white man. When Cnptain (afterwards Sir) W. 

 Cornvvallis Harris, in 1830, penetrated into the far interior, he 

 found the true Quagga abundant on the plains south of tlie Vaal, 

 wliilst north of that river it was replaced by the equally plentiful 

 Biirchell Zebra; and, indeed, the exuberant profusion of other 

 great game was on a similar scale, for the spreading veldt was 

 alive with Eland and Gim, Rhinoceros and Springbok; whilst 

 the glitteiing salt-pans bloomed with purple masses of Blesbok 

 and Bontebok. We can only in these days see in imagination 

 what Harris saw in reality ; yet we can picture the Quaggas in 

 the days of prosperity, feeding in a huge crescent, occasionally 

 emitting a barking neigh, tlieir striped heads turning this way 

 and tliat, and their snowy tails whisking in the blazing sunshine. 

 H irris, iiowever, tells us that even in his day these animals had 

 disappeared from many places in the Colony where they had 

 formerly abounded, although in the wild interior they still 

 existed in innnense herds. The species, though rarer, was yet 

 very far from being extinct. About 1850, however, the Boer 

 hunters ap[)eared. Shooting neither for food nor for legitimate 

 sport, but for hides alone, they attacked without pity the noble 

 game animals whicli had delighted Harris and many others with 

 their abundance and variety, and ruin fell everywhere on the 

 denizens of this sportsman's paradise. Tiie game at first ap- 

 peared to defy all efforts to reduce its numbers, but so persistently 

 was the massacre cairied on by the liide-hunters in season and 

 out of season, no close-time being allowed, that at last it began 

 to vanish rapidly, and upon the true Quagga, with its now fear- 

 fully diminished range south of the Vaal, this persecution fell 

 with double force. Tiiese unfortunate animals were extermi- 

 nated in Cape Colony about 1HG5, according to Mr. H. A. 

 Bryden ; those in the Free State lived a h'vi years longer, though 

 ]\lr. Biicklev's expedition in 1873 already found the animal 

 " apparently unknown." At any rate, as a stuffed specimen was 

 acquned by the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art as late as 



