The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.Bennett, Edward Turner
History
The Tower Menagerie : $b comprising the natural history of the animals contained in that establishment; with anecdotes of their characters and history.
It may, however, be observed, that it has been proposed to divide it
into two distinct genera, the one containing the Horse alone, and
characterized by the flowing tail uniformly covered with long hair, by
the absence of a line of darker coloured hairs along the back, and by
the presence of callous protuberances on the hind legs as well as on the
fore: the other comprehending the Asses and Zebras, and distinguished
by the tail having a brush of long hairs at its extremity only, by the
presence of the dorsal line, and the absence of the protuberances on the
posterior legs. Such a division, resting as it does on striking but not
very essential differences, may fairly be admitted for the purpose of
separating the genus into sections; but can hardly be regarded as founded
on characters of sufficient importance to disunite so well marked and
strongly connected, as well as so limited, a group. In the same paper
in which this new arrangement was proposed, the beautiful animal which
we have now to describe was first specifically distinguished by Mr. Gray
from the Common Zebra, with which it had previously been confounded,
and characterized by him under the name of the Asinus Burchellii. Still
there exists so much confusion between the two Zebras, many naturalists
falling into the same error with Mr. Burchell, who first remarked the
distinction between them, and regarding the present animal as the Zebra
of zoologists, and the common one in reality as the new species; while
others have absolutely counterchanged a part of the characters of each,
and thus made confusion worse confounded; that we cannot do better than
describe with some little detail the markings of the individual now
before us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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