622 VERTEBRATA. 
THE DAUW. 
legs to the hoofs are regularly striped, mostly crosswise, with deep brown-black bands, lighter in 
the middle. From this form of marking we have the word zehraecl, significant of a regular band- 
ing of the skin of an animal. The ears of the zebra are long, the neck short and deep, with a 
sort of dewlap under the throat, produced by a loose fold of the skin ; the mane is short, and the 
tail sparsely clad with long hair. The form resembles that of the ass, but the size nearly equals 
that of the horse. 
Wild and swift, this species lives in troops in the bold ranges of craggy mountains remote from 
the abodes of man. Its disposition is savage and intractable, and it is by no means easily ob- 
tained, not only from its fleetness, but from the nature of the localities it frequents, where, like the 
wild ass of Thibet, in "the wilderness and the barren land is his dwelling; he scorneth the mul- 
titude of the city." Nevertheless, zebras have been taken to Europe and placed in the menag- 
eries. All attempts to domesticate them, or to train them to the service of man, have failed ; 
about a century ago, however, the King of Portugal had four of them, which he sometimes drove 
harnessed to his carriao;e. 
Fossil Equid^. — The remains of extinct Equidse have been found in the deposits of the pliocene 
period, in Europe, in India, and even in North and South America, where the horse did not exist 
at the time of the discovery of Columbus. These races in North America appear to have flour- 
ished and perished with the Mastodon ; in South America with the Megatherium. Whether any 
of the animals to whom these bones belonged were similar to any existing species has not been 
determined; several species, however, are supposed to be made out, and have received appropriate 
titles, as Equus fossilis^ £J. plicidens, JS. Asinus fossilis, E. curvidens^ &c. 
