AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
79 
The Italian Horse. 
The Italian Horses were once in high repute, particularly 
the Neapolitans; but like every thing else in those mis- 
managed countries, they have sadly degenerated. One cir- 
cumstance has mainly contributed to this falling off in 
reputation and value, viz. that the breed has been kept up 
by occasional intermixture, not of Eastern but of Euro- 
pean blood. A few of the Neapolitan Horses, from their 
superior size and stateliness, are well adapted for the car- 
riage. 
The American Horse. 
In the extensive territory and varied climate of the 
United States, several breeds of Horses are found. 
The Canadian is found principally in Canada, and the 
Northern States. He is supposed to be of French de- 
scent, and many of the celebrated American trotters are 
of this breed. 
The Conestoga Horse is found in Pennsylvania and the 
middle States — long in the leg and light in the carcase — 
sometimes rising seventeen hands; used principally for the 
carriage, but when not too high, and with sufficient sub- 
stance, useful for hunting and the saddle. 
The English Horse, with a good deal of blood, prevails 
in Virginia and Kentucky; and is found, to a greater or 
less degree, in all the States. The Americans have, at 
different times, imported some of the best English blood. 
It has been most diligently and purely preserved in the 
Southern States. The celebrated Shark, the best horse of 
his day, and equalled by few at any time, was the sire of 
the best Virginian Horses; and Tally-ho, a son of High- 
flyer, peopled the Jerseys.” 
i 
The Zebra 
“ Is, perhaps, the handsomest and most elegantly clothed 
of all quadrupeds. He has the shape and graces of the 
Horse, the swiftness of the stag, and a striped robe of 
black and white alternately disposed with so much regu- 
larity and symmetry, that it seems as if Nature had made 
use of the rule and compass to paint it. These alternate 
bands of black and white are so much the more singular, as 
they are straight, parallel, and very exactly divided, like a 
striped stuff; and as they, in other parts, extend them- 
selves not only over the body, but over the head, the 
thighs, the legs, and even the ears and the tail; so that, at 
a distance, this animal appears as if he was surrounded with 
little fillets, which some person had disposed, in a regular 
manner, over every part of the body. In the females, 
these bands are alternately black and white; in the male, 
they are brown and yellow, but always of a lively and 
brilliant mixture, upon a short, fine, and thick hair; the 
lustre of which still more increases the beauty of the 
colours. The Zebra is, in general, less than the Horse, 
and larger than the Ass; and, although it has often been 
compared to those two animals, and called the Wild Horse, 
and the Striped Ass, it is a copy neither of the one nor 
the other, and might rather be called their model, if all 
was not equally original in nature, and if every species had 
not an equal right to creation. 
The Zebra is not the animal the ancients have indicated 
under the name Onagra. There exists in the Levant, the 
eastern parts of Asia, and in the northern parts of Africa, 
a beautiful race of asses, which, like the finest horses, are 
natives of Arabia. This race differs from the common, by 
the size of the body, the slenderness of the legs, and the 
lustre of the hair; they are of a uniform, but commonly of 
a fine mouse colour, with a black cross upon the back and the 
shoulders; and sometimes they are of a bright gray colour, 
with a flaxen cross. The Zebra is also of a different climate 
from the Onagra, and is only to be met with in the most 
eastern and the most southern parts of Africa, from Ethio- 
pia to the Cape of Good Hope, and thence to Congo: it 
exists neither in Europe, Asia, nor America, nor even in 
all the northern parts of Africa: those which some travel- 
lers tell us they have seen at the Brazils, have been trans- 
ported thither from Africa; those which others are re- 
counted to have seen in Persia and in Turkey, have been 
brought from Ethiopia; and, in short, those that we have 
seen in Europe are almost all from the Cape of Good Hope. 
This point of Africa is their true climate, their native 
country, and where the Dutch have employed all their 
care to subject them and to render them tame without hav- 
ing been hitherto able to succeed. 
The Zebra is chiefly found in the southern parts of 
Africa; often seen near the Cape of Good Hope, and a 
penalty of fifty rix-dollars is inflicted on any person who 
shoots one of them. Such of them as are caught alive are 
presented to the governor. Several have been brought to 
America, but they have all displayed great wildness and 
even ferocity. 
The Zebra of the Plains. 
The Zebra which we have just described is confined to 
the mountains; the subject of the present article inhabits 
the flat parts near the Cape. Till very recently, the dif- 
ference between them was not accurately understood. 
‘ The ground colour of its whole body, (says Mr. Bennett) 
is white, interrupted by a regular series of broad black 
