450 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



amusing to note how some writers lament that several travellers 

 refer to Burchell's and Chapman's Zebras as " Quaggas." 

 The Boers (whose naming of various animals is about as bad 

 as that of most settlers) are also blamed for this, whereas it 

 would appear that for once they have perhaps hit the right nail 

 on the head. 



There is reference in a recent treatise* to the Penycuick 

 experiments, which are referred to as indicating the " near 

 relationship of the Zebras to the Horses " ; this may be, but I 

 believe these investigations prove little more of the relationship 

 of the various existing groups of the Equidce than what we have 

 known for years. It is some time since I read these interesting 

 experiments, but, if I remember, they appear to be more 

 connected with telegony and the hypothetical ancestral forms. 

 Commenting on this family in ' The Field ' some years ago, I 

 stated then what still appears to me to be more valuable 

 evidence of relationship of present forms, viz., that in the 

 Knowsley menagerie t there was a fertile hybrid bred between 

 the Mountain Zebra and a Domestic Ass, which bore a foal to a 

 horse, and up till now, as far as I can find out, there has been 

 no fertile hybrid bred between any of the Equidce except the 

 above cross. This point, taken with the great resemblance in 

 form, a certain asinine quality of restlessness in the Mountain 

 Zebra, together with the reports of this animal joining troops 

 of asses, points to the fact, bluntly put, that E. zebra is nothing 

 but a striped donkey. 



I have never seen any account of any of the Quaggas 

 thus associating with asses ; and although I travelled in 

 company with both the latter animals, I never saw them evince 

 the slightest desire for each other's company. I cannot defi- 

 nitely affirm that they do not, but I never myself detected any 

 evidence of this. 



There is, however, at last an interesting hybrid between 

 Chapman's Quagga and the Common Ass at Regent's Park, 

 and it is to be hoped steps will be taken to test its fertility ; and 

 from the result of this test would seem to depend valuable evi- 

 dence as to the connections of these groups of Equidce. (I hear 



:: G. H. F. Xuttall, ' Blood Immunity and Blood Relationship,' p. 197. 

 f • Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall.' 



