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.
The ground colour of its whole body is white, interrupted by a regular
series of broad black stripes extending from the back across the sides,
with narrower and fainter ones intervening between each. Over the
haunches and shoulders these stripes form a kind of bifurcation, between
the divisions of which there are a few transverse lines of the same
colour; but these suddenly and abruptly cease, and are not continued
on the legs, which are perfectly white. Along the back there is a
narrow longitudinal line, bordered on each side with white. The mane
is throughout broadly and deeply tipped with black, and is marked by a
continuation of the transverse bands of the neck. The lines of the face
are narrow and beautifully regular; from the centre of the forehead they
radiate downwards over the eyes; along the front of the muzzle they are
longitudinal, the outer ones having a curve outwards; and on the sides
they form broader transverse bands. From the confluence of these bands
on the extremity of the muzzle, the nose, and the lower lip, those parts
become of a nearly uniform blackish brown. The tail is white: there is no
longitudinal ventral line: and a large black patch occupies the posterior
part of the ear near the tip. The hoofs are moderately large, deep in
front, shallow behind, and much expanded at their margin.
Of the habits of these animals in a state of nature we know but little.
They inhabit the flat parts near the Cape of Good Hope, the common Zebra
being confined to the mountains. All the attempts that have been made to
domesticate either the one or the other, and to render them serviceable,
have hitherto failed; but there seems no good reason why they should not,
with proper management, be brought as completely under subjection as the
other species of the genus. The subject of the present article, which has
now been about two years in the Menagerie, will suffer a boy to ride her
about the yard, and is frequently allowed to run loose through the Tower,
with a man by her side, whom she does not attempt to quit except to run
to the Canteen, where she is occasionally indulged with a draught of ale,
of which she is particularly fond.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE LLAMA.
_LLAMA PERUVIANA._ CUV.
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