Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found: A Book of Zoology for Boys

by Mayne Reid

After the true horse, the most beautiful species is the Zebra. Every one knows the general appearance of this handsomely marked animal, which appears as if Nature had painted his body for effect.

Of the zebra there are two distinct kinds—both of them natives of Africa, and belonging to the southern half of that great continent. They are easily distinguished from each other by the stripes. One of them is literally striped to the very hoofs—the dark bands running around the limbs in the form of rings. The stripes extend in the same way over the neck and head, to the very snout or muzzle. This is the true zebra, an animal that inhabits the mountainous regions of South Africa, and which differs altogether from the dauw or Burchell’s zebra, also found upon the great plains or karoos of the same region. The latter has the stripes only over the body; while the head and legs are very faintly streaked, or altogether of a plain brownish colour. Attempts have been made at taming both of these kinds, and with some success. They have been trained both to the saddle and draught; but, even in the most tractable state to which they have been yet reduced, they are considered as “treacherous, wicked, obstinate, and fickle.”

Another species of horse found also in South America is the Quagga. This is very much like the zebra in size, shape, and in fact everything except colour. In the last respect it differs from both, in being of a plain ashy brown hue over the upper parts of the body, very indistinctly striped, and of a dirty white colour underneath. Like the dauw, it frequents the open plains—trooping together in vast droves, and often herding with several species of antelopes.

Another species of quagga, called the Isabella quagga, is supposed to exist in South Africa; but there are doubts upon this subject. The name is derived from the colour of a specimen seen by a very untrustworthy traveller, which was of the hue known as Isabella colour; but nothing is known of the animal, and most naturalists believe that the Isabella quagga is identical with the other species, and that the specimen reported by Le Vaillant was only a young quagga of the common kind.

All these species of African horses are generally classed with the genus Asinus; that is, they are considered as asses, not horses.

We now come to other species of the ass genus, which were all originally natives of Asia.

First, then, there is the domestic Ass; and of this species there are almost as many varieties as of the horse,—some of them, as the Guddha of the Mahrattas, not larger than a mastiff, while others exist in different parts of the world as large as a two-year-old heifer. Asses are found of a pure white, and black ones are common, but the usual colour is that to which they have given their name—the “colour of an ass.”

Besides the domestic species, there are several others still found wild. There is the Koulan, which is exceedingly shy and swift—so much so that it is difficult to capture or even kill one of them; since before the hunter can approach within rifle range of them, they take the alarm and gallop out of sight. They live in troops, inhabiting the desert plains of Persia and Mesopotamia in winter, while in summer they betake themselves to the mountain ranges. They are also found on the steppes bordering the Caspian and Aral Seas.

Another species of wild ass is the Kiang. This inhabits Thibet. It is of a bright bay colour, and has a smooth coat; but the males are deeper coloured than the females. They live in troops of about a dozen individuals under a solitary male; and frequent places where the thermometer is below zero—though they dwell indifferently either on open plains or mountains.

The kiang has a variety of appellations, according to the country in which it is found. It is the Dziggetai, and the Wild Ass of Cutch, and also the Yototze of the Chinese; but it is very probable that all these are the names of different species. It is further probable, that there exist several other species of wild asses in the Thibetian and Tartar countries of Asia—and also in the vast unknown territories of North-eastern Africa—yet to be classified and described; for it may be here observed that a monograph of the horse tribe alone, fully describing the different species and breeds, would occupy the whole life of a naturalist.