20 



HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



The 



ZEBRA, 



HICH many authors have miftaken for a wild 



Y V Afs, is the mod beautiful, as well as the wild- 

 eft, molt timid, and untameable animal in nature. Be- 

 ing larger than the Afs, it rather refembles the Mule in 

 fhape : Its head is large 5 its ears longer than thofe of the 

 Horfe ; its legs beautifully fmall, and well placed ; and 

 its body well formed, round and flefhy : But the beauty 

 of its fhape is greatly heightened by the glofly fmoothnefs 

 of its fkin, and the amazing regularity and elegance of 

 its colours, which in the male are white and brown, and 

 in the female white and black, ranged in alternate ftripes 

 over the whole body, in a ftile fo beautiful and ornamen- 

 tal, that it would at firft fight feem rather the effect of 

 art than the genuine production of nature : The head is 

 ftriped with fine bands of black and white, which form a 

 center in the forehead ; the neck is adorned with ftripes 

 of the fame colour running round it; the body is beau- 

 tifully variegated with bands running acrofs the back, 

 and ending in points at the belly \ its thighs, its legs, its 



