Note 17 — THE ASIATIC STEPPES AND THEIR FAUNA.
Margaret R. Thomson translation
[Note 17] p. 97.—The Quagga.
The true quagga (Equus quagga), intermediate between zebras and asses, is no longer known to exist, though it was described by Sir Cornwallis Harris in 1839 as occurring in immense herds. The name quagga is given by the Boers to Burchell’s zebra (Equus burchelli).
The same sad fact of approaching extermination must be noted in regard to not a few noble animals, e.g. rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and giraffe.
Selous writes in 1893: “To the best of my belief, the great white or square-mouthed rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus), the largest of modern terrestrial mammals after the elephant, will, in the course of the next few years, become absolutely extinct. Yet, twenty years ago, it was a common animal over an enormous extent of country in Central South Africa.
“Never again will the traveller be able to stand upon his wagon-box, and, like Burchell, Andrew Smith, Cornwallis Harris, and Gordon Cumming, scan plains literally darkened by thousands upon thousands of wildebeests, quaggas, Burchell’s zebras, blesboks, hartebeests, and spring-boks.”