Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-11-09

moderate distances, although there was
nothing to hide them, the black and
white stripes blending so completely
that the animals assume dull brown
appearance in harmony with the gener-
al color of the locality in which they are
found, and in which, for instance.
Roof rehbok (Pelea carpreolata) is also
well protected on account of
its peculiar brownish coat. A
member of our party, who.
on another occasion, gave proof that he
is possessed of excellent eyesight, and
who has frequently hunted in similar
localities, saw a zebra which was
wounded in one of the front legs at a
distance of about four hundred wards.
and, strange to say, he mistookit for a
big baboon. In a letter which I re-
ceived from him few days ago he said:
1T galloped like baboon from me.
and could only see that the color was
grayish-brown. At about five hundred
yards from me it ran on to a little
krantz, and mounting the highest rock,
drew its body together just as a baboon
does when its four feet are all together
on the summit of a little rock" His
remark as to the grayish- brown color of
the animal is the more valuable, as 1
believe this gentleman, Mr.. Wrench, A.
K. NJ, Of Cradock, is quite I'M
prejudiced. In my own letters to him,
which drew forth these remarks, l had
only asked him for the distance at
which he saw the zebra, and l did not
ask him how il was that he mistook
baboon on a perfectly clear South
African day.
My own observations also confirm
that the stripes of the zebra are of pro-
tective value. Riding along a slope 1
suddenly saw four zebras within one
hundred yards above me. They were
galloping down the hill, but stopped
when they caught sight of me. AS soon
as they stopped saw their stripes
pretty distinctly. After l had fred
and wounded one of them they started
again galloping down the hill roundme
in a semi-circle at distance of about
seventy yards All this time they pre-
sented a dull brown appearance, no
stripes being visible, although l had
my attention fixed on this point They
a little valley, and | heard afterward
that they assembled the next slope,
which was not more than fifteen hun.
dred yards away from whereI stood W ~
a native servant Yet even thir -Cn
eyed native could not see t. I
up the slope. They had - s
us. 90 O4-A
Perhaps it may ir ,ares+ sor,a - ,,o,r
readers that y n.os 40 LII 81 m1r
p p-o1.l.L u % the rugged hills west of
- A troop of forty-one ami
vas seen on the very ground over
Aich we hunted a short time before
we arrived. Our party saw eleven in
two days, but l believe three were seen
on two if not on three different ocoa-
sions. This would reduce their num-
Der to eight if not to five. They are
protected by government and also by
the farmers themselves, but l am afraid
that in spite of that their days are
numbered. They are said to be very
destructive to wire fences, and, as the
inclosing of farms with wire fences is
steadily on the increase in this colony,
many farmer will have, though per-
haps reluctantly and in defiance of the
law, to take up his gun and clear
them off his property. There will then
probably be an cutlery by people who
know the difficulties of south African
farming only from books written by
travellers who hurry through south
Africa in hrst-class railway carriage;
but those who really know south At
rica well will say it is great, great
pity, but it can not be helped unless
governments provides speedily an abode
for these and other animals threatened
with extinction. The first step in the
right direction would perhaps be the
esta blishment of a government zoolog-
zeal garden; but I hope others who are
more competent than am will stir the
people of Cape Colony up before it is too
late, SO that something more than
mere game laws may be done to pre-
serve them. Nature