Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-10

the Ras threw in a lion and several other
beasts. The two zebras have been quar-
tered at the National Zoo since their. re-
spective arrivals. Dan is five years old,
measures 13 hands inches and weighs $50
pounds. while the Ras' colt is three years
old and weighs GOO pounds. Six ordinary
good farm mares have been purchased for
the experiments. which will be conducted
at the bureaus experiment station, College
Park, Md
King of Striped Horses.
Grevy zebras. so far as is known to our
authorities, have never been used to pro-
duce hybrids with the horse. These speci-
mems are the only zebras of that species
ever brought to the western continent. The
Grevy zebra is the king of the entire striped
horse family and the most powerful beast
of It's kind. 1t sometimes stands fifteen
hands In height. but in form resembles the
ass more than the horse. Its ears are par
ticularly large and mobile, and, unlike some
other zebras, 1t is striped down TO It's hoofs.
But the characteristics OF marking which
distinguish 1t from all other species are
the narrowness and contrast Of its stripes,
the contrast increasing with age. 1t is
much more powerful and active than the
ordinary donkey.
It's home is among the plateaus of Somali
land and Shoa. western central Africa,
where especially, in certain seasons of the
year, when il becomes very fat, It's flesh is
priced for food both by the native tribes
and by lions. NaturaliStS regard the GreYy
species as the most primitive of all Zebras,
and it Is now believed that the striped
horse exhibited in the ampitheater of Rome,
in the third century, A. D., was CT -hls
family and not a mountain zebra, rs pre-
Yiously supposed. The mountain zebra,
once common in South Africa and geneT-
ally referred TO in old works the com
NOR zebra" has legs barred TO the hoofs
and stripes suggesting a gridiTon on either
side of the tdil-two characteristics OF the
Grevy also. The mountain zebra which
stands at about twelve hands, was once
very numerous in the mountains Of Cape
Colony. but has now almost entirely dis
appeared from South Africa although there
is variety left in Angola, Portuguese West
Africa.
A third species. named-after its Iiscov-
erer-the Burchell zebra, is found In South
Africa. down as far as the Orange river AID
along the north and east borders of the
TransvaaL 1t includes some of the STRIPED
horses now enormously referred to as
"quaggas" IN spite of the fact that the
quagga Is now lost or entirely extinct The
Burchetl zebra IS characterized by It's per-
fectly white legs and has scarcely a yostige
o. transverse stripes across either It's Group
or its loins. When wild herds of Grevy ard
Burchell zebras have been seen grazing to-
gether the former have appeared like horses
among a flock of ponies, and 1t has been
noted that whereas GreVy stations fsht
viciously among themselves. they never mo-
lest the smaller Burchell stations rea-
son for this is suggested by NJ Horace
Hayes, late captain Of THE Buffs' shat
Englishman whose book The Points of a
Horse" Is now recognized as "A standard
work Capt. Hayes says: 1.-The society
rules of these animals appear to be much
more strict than those of the English peo-
pie. for although they have no objection to