ZOOLOGY 
295 
(Burchell’s zebra) has the legs below the “ knee ” and hock almost without 
stripes. 
The question with regard to the striped horses stands thus :—There is the 
true or mountain zebra (.Equus zebra), a smaller animal than the zebra of the 
plains and with the pattern and breadth of the stripes differing from the three 
types of (so-called) Burchell’s zebra. The true zebra is perhaps the most per¬ 
fectly striped of all the Tigrine horses. This creature is nearly extinct but has 
always been for the last hundred years or so confined to the mountains of 
South Africa. 
Then there is the closely allied Equus grevyi which inhabits the mountains 
of southern Abyssinia and Somaliland. From the resemblance between 
these two types of mountain zebra one might imagine that there had been 
a regular race of mountain zebras inhabiting all the highlands from the 
north-east to the south-west of Africa, but that all the links between Shoa and 
Cape Colony had died out in the course of time. It is curious that the natives 
of Mlanje assert that there is a small mountain zebra dwelling on Michesi 
Mountain which is an outlying spur of the Mlanje range. Up to the present, 
however, we have been unable to secure a specimen. 
Then comes the race of big zebras of the plains. These are characterised 
by much broader stripes, by the ground colour of the skin being darker and 
yellower in tint than that of the mountain zebra and, in one variety, by the 
imperfect striping of the legs. What I object to is that this imperfect type 
should be taken as the type of the species merely because it was the first one to 
be discovered (it was named after the South African traveller Burchell). 1 Sub¬ 
sequently as explorers and sportsmen penetrated more and more into South 
Central Africa they found that the zebra of the plains was striped right down 
to the hoof. A specimen was sent home by a Mr. Chapman and naturalists 
then called it Equus burchelli , variety chapmani. But both Burchell’s and 
Chapman’s zebras have this point in common, that in between the broad black 
stripes there are thin hazy dun-coloured streaks, much as though one took a 
photograph of a striped zebra, he moved, and so the stripes were faintly 
duplicated. This intervening brown zigzag marking has, in my opinion, a 
very ugly effect. Now the zebra of Nyasaland and, as far as I know, of all 
British Central Africa, is without this duplication of the stripe, and is one of 
the most beautiful animals in existence. Its ground colour is very pale fawn, 
melting into white, and the stripes are broad and jet black. It is striped down 
to its very hoofs. But on the other hand, the common zebra of East Africa and 
Uganda also has these duplications of the stripes, though not in such a marked 
degree as the South African zebra of the plains. It would seem, therefore, that 
the zebra found in South Central Africa is a distinct variety, if not species. I 
consider it should be the type of the large zebras and that the others should be 
classified as inferior varieties, tending more towards the Quagga. This point, 
however, was first raised by Mr. Richard Crawshay, and up to the present 
zoologists are not agreed as to the validity it possesses. 2 
Last in the list of zebras is the Quagga which is dun coloured, with stripes 
only on the neck, shoulders, and forelegs. The Quagga is nearly if not quite 
1 The story goes that Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, and the explorer Burchell—both peppery 
men—had quarrelled. Dr. Gray having a new zebra to name, called it, half in fun, half in malice, 
“ Asinus burchelli.’’ Burchell, so far from appreciating the honour, challenged Dr. Gray to fight a duel! 
2 Since writing the above I have read the article on the subject by Mr. W. E. de Winton in the 
Magazine of Natural History , but I think it best to let my views stand as they are. 
