ZEBRAS, WILD AND TAME.
ZEBRAS have always had a great attraction for English feeling. We look on them as far the most beautiful wild example of the horse, and the horse is undoubtedly the favourite animal of Englishmen. But the zebras have, what no horse has, natural ornament in a very high degree. They are among the most elaborately decorated of all mam- mals. In the days when no one knew much of their habits the skins were sold as those of " sea-horses," wonderful beings evidently constructed in the salesmen's imagination from the pictures of sea gods drawn by fish-tailed steeds, with atten- dant sea-blue nymphs.
Recent mails from Africa have again directed attention to the zebras. A new species has been discovered somewhere on the borders of the Congo forest, apparently a quagga with the stripes reversed; that is, instead of being striped on the head and shoulders, it is said to have a tawny head and back, and a striped belly and legs. The latest news as to zebras generally is the discovery of astonishing herds of them on the plains that lie south of Albert Nyanza, Albert Edward Nyanza, and the plateaux between the Great Lakes generally. They are said to be seen feeding like ponies in a field, and to have almost no fear of man, as many of the tribes which inhabit the district are only vegetable-feeders, and do not even dig pitfalls for the abounding game. It is this abundance of the natural wild horse of the district
which has prompted Mr. R. Stordy, to write a detailed recommendation to the Foreign Office suggesting the domestication of the animals for draught purposes in the fly country and Central Africa generally. He believes that the wild zebras could easily be taken up in kraals, and the foals regularly broken and used for domestic purposes. From these a tameirace might be bred, just as tame ostriches are now perpetuated from a stock which fifty years ago was wild on the African deserts. There is not the slightest doubt that this is the natural and sensible thing to do wherever the climate or the "fly "—the similitude of which enlarged to the size of a rabbit in the Museum of Natural History has instructed the public in its deadly effect on horses in a very thorough manner—makes horse-carriage impossible. The first need is that some hardy animal larger than a donkey shall be found. The constitution of all the zebras is astonishingly robust. They are naturally dwellers on high plains and dry mountains. But they are found in the fly-haunted veldt of East Central Africa near Mombasa. In this country they live out-of-doors through the winter, and Professor Ewart's zebra hybrids were more hardy than the ponies, and did well out on the Pentland Hills. They are thirsty animals, and need to drink twice a day. But they can live on very scanty food, and thrive on the meagre plants of the wilderness. Their legs are clean, hard, and perfectly formed. " One never finds a crock, or a lame one, except from wounds, among a troop," writes Mr. Anderson Bryden, and the feet are models of perfection, small, clean, perfectly shaped, and as hard as flint, and are evidently peculiarly adapted to the high dry plains upon which these animals make their homes. Their speed is very considerable, though prob- ably it varies with the condition of the zebras. When the grass is dry and hard they are probably in better going con- dition than when the veldt is covered with green succulent food. Mr. Bryden considers that the Burchell's zebras gallop very fast and very well. " Several times in tail-on chases across the plains I have had to relinquish the pursuit as hopeless, although well-mounted for the South African veldt. The Cape hunting pony is, however, always severely handicapped for the occasion, with its burden of man, rifle, and equipment. On level terms, I think a fair horse would always beat the fastest zebra that ever scoured the plains. When zebras are charged they do not gallop abreast, but string out into file, like antelopes, with a stallion leading."
All the enthusiastic descriptions of the wild horses on the pampas or on the steppe can be paralleled by the pictures drawn by delighted hunters and travellers, men well used to see and judge the comparative beauty of animals, of the wild zebras. It is natural enough, for the zebra is a far handsomer and better built creature either than the half-wild ponies of the Don or the fiddle-headed, dusty-looking bronchos. The mountain zebra, which is really a mountain-living species, appears to even greater advantage. It is at home among the crags and precipices of the high stony mountains, only not snow-covered because the snow-line of the dry and hot South Africa is higher than ours. It is by no means so scarce as is commonly asserted. It is still found in the greater part of the mountain ranges of Cape Colony, which, now that attention has been drawn to their geography by the evasive Boer commanders, are, it will be admitted, numerous and difficult enough to shelter and preserve them. They are found in the Cedarberg near Piquetburg, in the Roggeveld in Sutherland, in the Swartzberg (in all of which ranges fighting has been going on quite recently, and of which Piquetburg is unpleasantly near Cape Town), in the Sneeuwberg near Graaf Reinet, and near Cradock, Cathcart, and Uitenhage. The mountain zebra is also found in German territory in Damaraland. There it lives in the most inaccessible parts of the mountains in small troops. Sentinels are posted, just as by ibex or chamois, and the herd when frightened gallop over the crags and rocks almost as surefooted in their speed as the ibex. It is probably the largest animal inhabiting really mountainous ground. It is 7 ft. 4 in. long from the muzzle to the set-on of the tail, and stands 12 hands high. Burchell's zebra varies a good deal in size in different districts. The variety called after Mr. Selous is 8 ft. 5 in. long in the body, and stands nearly 13 hands. There is still more difference between the smallest varieties of Burchell's zebra and the big Greys or Somaliland breed. There is as great a contrast between some of the latter and the smallest southern race as between a large mule and a Norfolk donkey. It is from these large-boned upstanding zebras, if from any, that the draught animal' should be selected. Probably they would interbreed with the Burchell's zebras, though it is doubtful if the stock would be fertile. Neither the idea nor the fact of taming zebras is new. In the middle of the last century half - broker Burchell's zebras were sometimes seen for sale in Cape Town, with a rider mounted to show that they were ride. able. It is said that they were exported to the Mauritius for draught purposes. If so, it would be interesting to know from the records of the Colony whether they were a success, and whether they were bred there. The females are fairly prolific even in confinement, and the males cross freely with horse mares as well. It is possible that they may have been in Mauritius for some time, as camels were in Jamaica in the very early days of the plantation. The experiment has been tried with complete success in England and in South Africa. Mr. Walter Rothschild's team, three zebras and a pony, was fairly well broken, though perhaps the animals were not all that could be desired in the stable. At Barnum's Show a team of four zebra mares was as quiet as so many sheep. The writer visited them when waiting for their turn in the perform- ance, where they drew a car. They were in pairs, ready harnessed in their stalls. All four were standing quietly with no one near them, not fidgeting in their harness or pawing the ground from ennui as some of the ponies were. In the Field of March 11th, 1893, appeared a photograph of a team regularly driven in the Transvaal. Messrs. Zcederberg, the contractors for the line of coaches which ran from Pretoria to Petersburg, bought eight half-grovin Burchell's zebras from a Boer hunter nanied'Grobelaar. Their object was, much the same as thatwhich suggests Mr. Stordy's advice,— viz., to help in the 'coaches during the season of horse-sickness. They were lassoed when four months old, and broken to harness in a month. They were then run in the coach with six mules. The account given of them describes them as " perfectly quiet and well trained. In harness they 011 well, and are willing and never jib. In fact, one of them will do his best to pull the whole coach himself. They'are softer-mouthed than the mule. They never kick, and the only thing in the shape of vice which they show is a tendency, when first handled, to bite. But they soon give it up when they understand that there is no tempta- tion to hurt them." This is really a wonderfully good character for animals taken up from absolutely wild stock. Wild asses, for instance, would probably be intractable, though possibly wild reindeer could be trained to act with tame ones. Mr. Bryden chronicles* another experiment, which was a failure. Sixteen Burchell's zebras were brought in from the interior by Dutch hunters. They seemed perfectly tame and were broken to harness and saddle. But it was found that they would not stand regular coach-work, and were more trouble than horses and mules. This is very probable. But where horses and mules cannot live, they would probably be less trouble than human porters.
uffon has the credit of giving to the animal its present name, but with more correctness than in the case of the other familiar animal whose name begins with " z." " Zebu," which he appropriated to the humped cattle of India, is the common name throughout the East for cattle as distinguished from buffaloes. The name still survives in the Caucasus for the wild bison of the Old World. " Zebra " is adapted by Buffon from what was said by old travellers to be its vernacu- lar name in the Congo region. It is believed to be thoroughly African. The history of the lost zebra, the quagga, is a curious one. It seems to have been a local species, very little dis- tributed, and seems never to have gone north of the Orange Free State. As the Boers used to shoot the quaggas to feed their Hottentots, and later to make leather from their hides, they disappeared as early as 1860, though some were believed to have survived in the Orange Free State till 1878. As the white rhinoceros, none of which were supposed to exist north of the Zambesi, has been found living in a fresh enclave some- where near Lake Victoria, it is still possible that a separate and surviving branch of the lost quagga may be discovered there also.
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