The Zebra (_fig. 146._) is perhaps the handsomest and most elegant
of all quadrupeds. He has the figure and gracefulness of the horse,
with the swiftness of the stag. His striped robe of black and white
ribbands, is alternately disposed with so much regularity and symmetry,
that it seems as if nature had made use of the rule and compass. The
alternate bands of black and white, are the more singular, as they are
strait, parallel, and as exactly divided, as those of a striped stuff;
besides they extend not only over the body, but over the head, thighs,
legs, and even the ears and tail; so that, at a distance, this animal
appears as if he was adorned with ribbands, disposed in a regular and
elegant manner over every part of the body. In the females, these
bands are alternately black and white; in the males they are black and
yellow; but the shades are always lively and brilliant, upon a short,
fine, and thick hair, the lustre of which increases the beauty of the
colours. The zebra, in general, is less than the horse, and bigger than
the ass. Although he has often been compared to these two animals,
by the names of the _wild horse_ and the _striped ass_, he is a copy
of neither, but might rather be called their model, if all were not
equally original in Nature, and if every species had not an equal right
to creation.
_Engraved for Barr's Buffon_
[Illustration: FIG. 147. _Zebra._]
[Illustration: FIG. 148. _Hippopotamus._]
The zebra, then, is neither a horse nor an ass, for we have never
learnt that he intermixes with either, though trials have often been
made for that purpose. She-asses, when in heat, were presented to the
zebra, which was in the menagerie of Versailles, in the year 1761; but
he disdained them, or rather, shewed no sign of emotions; he played
with, and even mounted on them, but without any external marks of
desire; and this coldness could be attributed to no other cause than
the disagreement of their natures; for this zebra was then four years
of age, and was very lively and alert in every other exercise.
The zebra is not the animal the ancients have mentioned under the name
of _onagre_. In the Levant, in the eastern parts of Asia, and in the
north of Africa, there exists a beautiful race of asses, which, like
the finest horses, are natives of Arabia. This race differs from the
common kind, by the largeness of the body, the slenderness of the legs,
and the lustre of the hair. They are of an uniform colour, commonly
of a fine mouse grey, with a black cross on the back and shoulders,
sometimes they are of a bright grey, with a flaxen cross. These asses
of Africa and Asia, although more beautiful than those of Europe, are
originally, and equally descended from the _onagres_, or _wild asses_,
which are still in great plenty in East and South Tartary, Persia,
Syria, the islands of the Archipelago, and all Mauritania. The onagres
differ from our domestic asses only by the qualities resulting from
freedom and independence: they are stronger and swifter, and have more
courage and vivacity; the form of their body is the same, but they
have longer hair, and this difference varies again according to their
condition, for our asses would have hair equally long, if it was not
cut off at the age of four or five months. The hair of young asses
is at first nearly as long as that of young bears. The hide of the
wild ass is also harder than that of the domestic kind, and we are
informed that it is covered with small tubercules, and it is even said
that the _shagreen_ brought from the Levant, and which we employ for
so many purposes, is made of these wild asses skin. But neither the
onagres, nor the beautiful asses of Arabia, can be looked upon as the
stock of the zebra species, though they resemble them in figure and
swiftness. That regular variety of the climate of the zebra has never
been exhibited by either of them. This beautiful species is singular,
and very distant from any other. The zebra is also of a different
climate from the onagre, being only to be met with in the most eastern
and southern parts of Africa, from Ethiopia to the Cape of Good Hope,
and from thence into Congo. He exists neither in Europe, Asia, America,
nor in the northern parts of Africa. Those, which some travellers
tell us they saw at the Brasils, had been transported thither from
Africa. Others, which have been seen in Persia and in Turkey, have
been brought thither from Ethiopia; and, in short, those which we
have seen in Europe come almost entirely from the Cape of Good Hope.
This point of Africa is their native climate, and where the Dutch
have employed all their endeavours to tame and render them domestic,
without having hitherto been able to succeed. That which was the
subject of this description was very wild when he arrived at the royal
menagerie in France, and is not yet entirely tamed; nevertheless, he
has been brought to let a man sit on a saddle, but great precaution is
necessary, as two men are obliged to hold the bridle while the third is
on his back. His mouth is very hard; his ears are so sensible that he
winces whenever they are touched. He is restive, like a vicious horse,
and obstinate as a mule. But, perhaps, the wild horse, and the onagre,
are equally untractable, and, possibly, if the zebra was accustomed to
obedience, and to a domestic state, from his earliest days, he might
become as gentle as the ass or the horse, and might be substituted in
their room.