Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/70

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
46
THE ZOOLOGIST

this animal gave birth to a curious hybrid, the father of which was an Asiatic Wild Ass (Equus hemionus).

(5, 6, 7) Three Quaggas (not two as I have seen stated) have been exhibited by the Zoological Society of London—(a) an animal which died fully adult, as I judge from examining the skull, some time previous to 1838 (skin and skeleton mentioned in Waterhouse's old catalogue); (b) a female purchased in 1851; (c) a male, presented by Sir George Grey in 1858. This animal was photographed alive in 1872, when its wild brethren were already in the throes of extermination.

(8) A Quagga was formerly exhibited alive at the Berlin Zoological Gardens; its skin and skeleton are now in the Museum für Naturkunde.

(9, 10, 11?) "Several" Quaggas were obtained about 1870 by the Belgian consul at Port Elizabeth, and sent to the Antwerp Zoological Gardens.

No Quagga foals have ever been born in captivity. After careful inquiry, I learn that this species, has never been exhibited in the Zoological Gardens of Bristol, Cologne, Dublin, Frankfort-on-Main, Hamburg, Hanover, Lisbon, Marseilles, or Rotterdam. Thus ends the brief record of the living animal, which has passed away for ever, with all its latent qualities for domestication unused, and even its habits but imperfectly known.

To turn to the last portion of this essay: the census of known remains—a melancholy inventory at best. In 1898 I contributed a short article to 'The Zoologist' on "Existing Specimens of Equus quagga," giving only a very short list, and suggesting that somebody should take the matter up, and compile a complete census of relics, little thinking that one day I should myself essay the task. The results of a laborious undertaking are here summarised; and I hasten to express my thanks to all those scientific gentlemen who in Europe, South Africa, and the United States have so kindly aided me with information. The census is as follows:—

The United Kingdom.—(1) The newly-mounted old skin of the first Quagga possessed by the Zoological Society of London now stands in the Mammal Gallery of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. It seems probable that this is the identical skin which Harris figures' at the end of the article "Quagga,"