112 The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare s Time. 
rubbing himself against the thorns causes the birds’ eggs 
to fall out of their nests; and again, when he lifts his 
head, “then by a strong blast the thorns moveth and 
shaketh, and of the great noyse the birdes be affeard full 
sore and falleth out of the nest ” ( Batman upon Bartho- 
lome , p. 341). The synonym donkey is never used in the 
time of Shakspeare. It is impossible to write of this 
animal without recalling Dogberry's indignant exclama¬ 
tion, “ 0 that I had been writ down an ass ! ” (Much 
Ado About Nothing , iv. 2, 90). 
The Zebra, one of the most beautiful animals inhabit¬ 
ing the continent of Africa, is mentioned by 
early travellers, though no specimen seems to 
have been brought to England, at least up to the time of 
Shakspeare. Edward Lopes, a Portuguese, in his report 
of the kingdom of Congo, states that— 
“ there breedeth in this country, another creature, which they call a 
zebra, commonly found also in certaine provinces of Barbary and 
Africa. It hath a most singular skin, and peculiar from all other 
creatures. For from the ridge of the chin downe towards the belly it 
is straked with rowes of three colours, blacke, white, and browne bay, 
about the breadth of three fingers a piece, and so meet againe together 
in a circle, every row, with his owne colour.” 
After giving a full description of the various parts of the 
animal the writer goes on to admire its speed, which, he 
says, is admirable:— 
“insomuch as in Portugall and in Castile also, it is commonly used (as 
it were for a proverbe) as swift as a zebra, when they will signifie an 
exceeding quiclmesse.” ( Purchas , vol. ii. p. 1001.) 
Andrew Battell, an Englishman, writing a description 
of the same part of Africa, also mentions the zevera, or 
zebra. 
John Huighen van Linschoten, in his 
Rhinoceros. . .. * . „ 
description ot a voyage to Goa, informs us 
that— 
