Chapter 3

THE ZEBU.

We have already spoken of this little ox under the article buffalo; but as there has been one brought to the royal menagerie since the impression of that article, we can now speak of it with greater exactness, and give an engravingof it done from life. I have also learned, by making new researches, that this small ox, to which I have given the name ofzebu, (fig. 145.) is very probably the same animal which is calledlant, ordant, in Numidia, and in some other northern provinces of Africa, where it is very common, and that the namedant, which can belong to no other animal but this we are treating of, has been transported from Africa into America, and given to an animal which only resembles this by the size of his body, and who belongs to a different species. This dant of America is the tapir, or the maipouri; and in order that it may not be confounded with the dant of Africa, which is our zebu, we shall give the history of it in this volume.

THE MUFLON, AND OTHER SHEEP.

The weakest species of useful animals were rendered domestic the earliest of any. The sheep and goat were subjugated before the horse, the ox, or the camel. They were alsotransported from one climate to another with greater ease; hence the great variety which are to be met with in these species, and the difficulty of recognizing the original breed of each. It is certain, as we have proved, that our domestic sheep, as they at present exist, could not support themselves without the assistance of man; it is, therefore, evident that Nature did not produce them as they at present are, but that they have degenerated under our care; consequently we must search among the wild animals for those which come the nearest to the sheep; we must compare them with the domestic sheep of foreign countries, examine the different causes of the alteration, change, and degeneration, which has had such influence upon the species, and endeavour to restore all these various and pretended species to a primitive race, as we have done in that of the ox.

The sheep, with which we are acquainted, is only to be met with in Europe, and some of the temperate provinces of Asia; if transported into Guinea, it loses its wool, and is covered with hair, it decreases in fertility, and its flesh has no longer the same taste. It cannot subsist in very cold countries, though a breed of sheep is to be found in cold climates; especially in Iceland, who have many horns,short tails, and harsh thick wool, under which, as in almost every animal in the north is a second lining, of a softer, finer, and thicker wool. In warm countries, on the contrary, the sheep have generally short horns and a long tail, some of which are covered with wool, others with hair, and a third kind with a mixture of wool and hair. The first of these sheep of a warm country is that commonly calledBarbary sheep, or theArabian sheep, which resembles the domestic kind, excepting the tail which is so loaded with fat, as to be often more than a foot broad, and weighs upwards of twenty pounds. This sheep has nothing remarkable but his tail which he carries as if a pillow was fastened to his hinder parts. Among this kind of sheep, there are some whose tails are so long and heavy, that the shepherds are obliged to fasten small boards with wheels to them, to enable the animal to walk along. In the Levant, these sheep are cloathed with a very fine wool, while in warm countries, as Madagascar, and the Indies, they are covered with hair. The superabundance of fat, which in our sheep fixes about the kidneys, in these animals descends upon the vertebræ of the tail; the other parts of their body are less charged with it than our fed sheep. This variety is tobe attributed to the climate, the food, and the care of men; for these broad, or long-tailed sheep, are domestic like ours, and even demand more care and management. This breed is much more dispersed than the common kind. They are common in Tartary, Persia, Syria, Egypt, Barbary, Ethiopia, Madagascar, and even as far as the Cape of Good Hope.

In the islands of the Archipelago, and chiefly in the island of Candia, there is a breed of domestic sheep, of which Belon has given the figure and description under the name ofstrepsiceros: this sheep is of the make and size of our common kind; it is like that covered with wool, and only differs from it by the horns, which are erect, and in form of a screw.[F]

[F]Sonnini observes that this race is also very common in Hungary and Austria where it is calledzackl.

In short, in the warmest countries of Africa and India, there is a breed of large sheep with rough hair, short horns, hanging ears, and a kind of dewlap under the neck. This sheep, Leo Africanus, and Marmol calladimain, and it is known to the naturalists by the names of theSenegal ram, theGuinea ram, theAngola sheep, &c.He is domestic, like ours, and like him, subject to varieties. The sheep, though they differ in particular characters,resemble each other so much in other respects that we cannot doubt they are of the same kind. Of all domestic sheep, this appears to approach nearest to a state of nature; he is larger, stronger, quicker, and consequently more capable of supporting himself; but as he is only found in the hottest countries, and cannot bear cold, and as he does not exist in his own climate in a wild state, but is domestic and obliged to the care of man for his support we cannot regard him as the primitive breed, from which all the rest have derived their origin.

In considering domestic sheep, therefore, according to the difference of climate, we find, 1. The sheep of the north, who have many horns, and whose wool is coarse. The sheep of Iceland, Gothland, Muscovy, and other parts of the north of Europe, have all coarse hair, and appear to be of the same breed.

2. Our sheep whose wool is very good and fine in the mild climates of Spain and Persia, but in hot countries changes to a rough hair. We have already observed the conformity in the influence of the climates of Spain and Chorazan, a province of Persia, upon the hair of goats, cats, and rabbits; it acts in the same manner upon the wool of sheep,which is very fine in Spain, and still finer in that of Persia.

3. The broad-tailed sheep, whose wool is also very fine in temperate countries, such as Persia, Syria, and Egypt; but which in warm countries, changes into hair more or less coarse.

4. Thestrepsiceros, or Canadian sheep, who resembles ours both in wool and make, excepting the horns, which are erect, and in the form of a screw.

Engraved for Barr’s Buffon

FIG. 139.Mouflon.

FIG. 140.Iceland Ram.

5. Theadimain, or great sheep of Senegal and India, which are covered with hair more or less short or coarse according to the heat of the climate. All these sheep are only varieties of the same species, and certainly would produce with each other, since we know from experience that the he goat, whose species is further distant, copulates with our ewes. But though these five or six races of domestic sheep are all varieties of the same species, entirely produced by the difference of climate, treatment, and food, yet none of them appear to be the primitive stock from whence the others sprung; nor is there any of them strong or swift enough either to resist, or avoid, carnivorous animals, by flight. They all equally need care and protection, and must all, therefore, be looked upon as degenerate races, formed by the hands of man, and multiplied for his use. At the same that he fed, cultivated, and increased these domestic races, he neglected, hunted, and destroyed the wild breed, which being stronger and less tractable, would, consequently, be more troublesome, and less useful; they are, therefore, only to be met with in small numbers, and in thinly inhabited places, where they can support themselves. In the mountains of Greece, in the islands of Cyprus, Sardinia, and Corsica, and in the desarts of Tartary, the animal, which we call themuflon(fig. 139.), is still to be found, and which in my opinion is the primitive stock of all the varieties of sheep; he lives in a state of nature, and subsists and multiplies without the help of man; he resembles the several kinds of domestic sheep more than any other wild animal; he is more lively, stronger, and swifter, than any of them; his head, forehead, eyes, and face, are like the ram’s; he resembles him also in the form of the horns, and in the whole habit of the body; in short, he produces with the domestic sheep, which alone is sufficient to demonstrate that he is of the same species, and the primitive stock of the different breeds.The only difference betwixt the muflon and our sheep is, that the first is covered with hair instead of wool; but we have already observed, that even in domestic sheep the wool is not an essential character, but a production of temperate climates, since in hot countries these same sheep have no wool, and are all covered with hair; and that, in cold countries, their wool is as coarse as hair. Hence it is not astonishing that the primitive wild sheep, who must have endured cold and heat, have lived and increased without shelter in the woods and deserts should not be covered with wool, which he would soon be deprived of among the thickets; and its nature would, in a short time, be changed by the action of the air, and in temperature of the seasons. Besides, when a he-goat copulates with a domestic ewe, the produce is a kind of muflon, for the lamb is covered with hair, and is not a barren mule, but a mongrel, which returns towards the original species, and which appears to indicate, that the goats and domestic sheep have something in common with their origin; and, as we know by experience, that the he-goat very readily copulates with the ewe, but that the ram is incapable of impregnating the she-goat, it is not to be doubted, that, when these animalsare in a domestic state, the goat is the predominant species. Thus our sheep is a species much more degenerated than that of the goat, and there is every reason to believe that if the muflon were brought to the she-goat, instead of a domestic ram, she would produce kids approaching nearer to the species of the goat, as the lambs produced between the he-goat and ewe return nearer to the species of the ram.

I know that naturalists, who have founded their knowledge of Natural History on the distinction of some particular characters, may make some objections to this doctrine, and, therefore, I shall endeavour to anticipate them. The first character of the sheep, they will say, is to be clothed with wool, and that of the goat with hair. The second character of the ram is to have circular horns, which turn backwards, and that of the he-goat is to have them straight and erect. These, they will affirm, are the distinctive and infallible marks by which sheep and goats will always be distinguished; for as to the rest, they cannot avoid acknowledging, they belong to them both in common. Neither have incisive teeth in the upper jaw, but each of them have eight in the lower; both want the canine teeth, and bothhave cloven feet, simple and permanent horns, teats in the same parts of the belly, both live upon herbage, and ruminate. The internal organization has still a greater resemblance, for it appears to be absolutely the same; the number and form of their stomachs, the disposition of the viscera and intestines, the substance of their flesh, the qualities of the fat and seminal liquor, the time they go with young, and the length of their lives, are perfectly the same. There only remains, then, the wool and the horns, by which these two species can be distinguished; but we have already demonstrated by facts, that wool is not so much a substance of nature as a production of climate, assisted by the care of man. The sheep of hot and cold countries, and those which are wild, have no wool, but hair, while the goats in very mild countries have rather wool than hair, for that of the Angola goat is finer than the wool of our sheep. This character, therefore, is not essential, but purely accidental, and even equivocal, since it equally belongs to, or is deficient, in both species, according to the difference of climate. The character of the horns appears to be still more uncertain; they vary in number, size, form, and direction. In our domestic sheep the rams have commonlyhorns, and the ewes have none; nevertheless, I have seen in our flocks rams without horns and ewes with them; and sheep not only with two but four horns. The sheep of the North, and of Iceland, (fig. 140.) have sometimes even eight. In hot countries the rams have only two very short horns, and often are deficient of them as well as the ewes. In some the horns are smooth and round, in others they are furrowed and flat, and the points instead of turning back, are often bent and come forward, &c. This character, therefore, is not more constant than the first, and consequently, not sufficient to constitute a different species; the largeness of the tail has also been considered, by some naturalists, as an essential distinction, and from the difference in the size of that, the wool, and the horns, they have made seven or eight different species of these animals, which we have reduced to one; and this reduction appears to be so well founded, that we are not afraid of its being contradicted by future observation.

It appeared necessary in composing the History of Wild Animals, to consider them one by one, and independently of genus; but on the contrary, in domestic animals, it appears requisite even to extend the genera; because, in Nature, there only exists individuals, andsuccession of individuals, that is, species. Men have had no influence on independent animals, but they have greatly altered, modified, and changed domestic ones; therefore, we have made physical and real generas, greatly different from metaphysical and arbitrary ones, which have never existed but in idea. These physical genera, are in reality composed of all the species, which by our management have been modified and changed, and as all these species so differently altered by the hand of man, have but one common and simple origin in nature, the whole genus ought to form but one species. For example, in writing the history of tigers, we have admitted as many species as are found in all the different parts of the world, because, we are certain that man has never subjected, nor changed the species of those untractable animals, which subsist at present such as Nature produced them. It is the same with all other free and independent animals. But in composing the history of oxen and sheep, we have reduced all the first under the species of a single ox; and the latter under that of a single sheep, because, it is also certain, that man, and not Nature, has produced the different kinds which we have enumerated. Every thing concurs to support this idea, which, although clear in itself, may not,perhaps, be sufficiently understood. That all the different oxen produce together, we have demonstrated by the experience of M. de la Nux, and the testimonies of Messrs. Mentzelius and Kalm; that the sheep also produce with one another, with the muflon, and even with the he-goat; I know from my own experience. All the different kinds of oxen, therefore, are no more than one species, and all the sheep but another, however extended the genus of both may be.

I shall never cease to repeat (seeing the importance of the subject) that it is not by trivial particular characters we can judge of Nature, or distinguish the species; that methodical arrangements, far from elucidating the History of Animals, serve but to obscure it by multiplying unnecessary denominations and species; by making arbitrary genera which are not in Nature, and perpetually confounding real beings with imaginary creatures; by giving false ideas of the characteristics of the species, and mixing or separating them without foundation, without knowledge, and often without having seen a single individual. It is hence that our nomenclators constantly deceive themselves, and write almost as many errors as lines. We have already given so many examples of this, that he must be blindlyprejudiced indeed, that can in the least doubt them. Monsieur Gmelin speaks very sensibly on this subject, when treating of the animal in question.[G]

[G]Vide Voyage à Kamtschatka, par M. Gmelin.

We are convinced, as M. Gmelin observes, that we cannot acquire a knowledge of Nature, but by making a judicious use of our senses, by reflecting, seeing, comparing, and, at the same time, by rejecting the bold freedom of forming methodical orders, and minute systems, in which animals are classed without the authors having seen them, and of which they are only acquainted with the names; names which are often equivocal, obscure, and misapplied. The wrong use of these names confounds the ideas in vague and indefinite words, and drowns the truth in a torrent of error. We are also convinced, after having compared the living mouflon with the description of M. Gmelin, that the argali is the same animal. We have said they are found in Europe, and in warm countries, such as Greece, the island of Cyprus, Sardinia, and Corsica; nevertheless, they are found also, and in great numbers, in all the mountains of the southern parts of Siberia, under a climate rather cold than temperate, and where they appear even to be bigger, stronger, and more vigorous. He might, therefore, have stocked the north and south parts, and his posterity have become domestic; after having long endured the rigours of this condition, he might have degenerated, taking relative characters, and new habits of body, according to the different climates, and the different treatments he has received; which being afterwards perpetuated by generation, have given rise to our domestic, and all other kinds of sheep, of which we have heretofore spoken.

Engraved for Barr’s Buffon

FIG. 141.Barbary Wedder.

FIG. 142.Ram of Tunis.

SUPPLEMENT.

In the year 1774, a ram was exhibited at the fair of St. Germain, as a ram of the Cape of Good Hope; but we found it had been purchased at Tunis, and considered it to be of the same species as the Barbary sheep, (fig.141.) before mentioned, for it differed only by the head and tail being somewhat more short and thick; yet by way of distinction, we have called it the ram of Tunis. (fig. 142.) His legs were shorter than those of our common sheep; he was plentifully clothed with wool, and his horns both in size and shape nearly resembled the Barbary sheep. In the same year, and at the same place, there was alsoanother shewn under the name of the Morvant of China, (fig. 143.) which was remarkable for having a sort of mane on his neck, and long hairs hanging down under his throat, which were a mixture of red and grey, and full ten inches long; the mane extended to about the middle of the back, the hairs of which were not so long as those under the throat, were more red, mixed with a few brown and black ones; the wool which covered the other part of the body was rather curled, near three inches long, and of a bright yellow; his legs were red, spotted with yellow, and his tail yellow and white; he was not so high as the common rams, and more resembled the Indian rams than them; he had a very large belly, in appearance like that of an ewe with young, and his horns were like those of the common kind.

From what we have since observed we are the more convinced in our former opinion, that the muflon is the original stock of all other sheep, and that he has a constitution sufficiently strong to live either in cold, temperate, or warm climates. M. Steller says, that the rams of Kamtschatka have the manner of the goat, and the hair of the rein-deer; that some of their horns weigh more than thirty pounds; that they are as active as roe-bucks, and live upon the edges of mountains, that their flesh is good, but they are principally hunted for their skins.

There remain but very few real muflons in Corsica, the many wars in that island having probably been the cause of their destruction, but the present race of sheep still retain a resemblance to them in their figures, as I observed to be the case in one I saw in August, 1774, belonging to the Duc de Vrilliére.

Engraved for Barr’s Buffon

FIG. 143.Morvant.

FIG. 144.Axis.

THE AXIS.

This animal being only known by the vague names of thehindofSardinia, and thedeerof theGanges, we have preserved the name given him by Belon, and which he borrowed from Pliny; because, the character of Pliny’s axis agrees with this animal, and the name has never been applied to any other; and, therefore, we are not afraid of falling into confusion or error, for a generic denomination, joined to an epithet derived from the climate, is not a name, but a phrase, by which we may confound one animal with others of his genus,as this with the stag, although, perhaps, it is really distinct both in species and climate. The axis (fig. 144.) is one of the small number of ruminating animals who has horns like the stag. He has the shape and swiftness of the fallow-deer. But what distinguishes him from both is, his having the horns of the former, and figure of the latter; his body is marked with white spots,[H]elegantly disposed, and separated one from another; and lastly, he is a native of warm countries;[I]while the stag and fallow-deer have their coats generally of a uniform colour, and are to be met with in greater numbers in cold and temperate regions than in warm climates.

[H]The axis is about the size of the fallow-deer, the ground colour of his body is a greyish yellow beautifully marked with white spots; his belly is white, as is also the under part of his tail, while the upper inclines to red.

[I]I never saw, at Senegal, any stag with horns like those in France.Voyage de le Maire.—There are stags in the peninsula of India, on this side the Ganges, whose bodies are interspersed with white spots.Voyage de la Compagnie des Indes de Hollande.—There are stags at Bengal spotted like tigers.Voyage de Luillier.

The gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences have given the figure and description of the interior parts of this animal, but say very little of his exterior form, and nothing with respect to his history. They have only called himtheSardinian hind, because, probably, they received that name from the royal menagerie, where there is one of them; but there is no proof of this animal’s being a native of Sardinia. No author has mentioned that he exists in that island, as a wild animal; but on the contrary, we see by the passages we have quoted, that he is found in the warmest countries of Asia. Thus the denomination ofSardinian hind, has been falsely applied; that of theGanges stagagrees best, if he really were of the same species as the stag, since that part of India, which the Ganges waters, appears to be his native country. He is also to be met with in Barbary, and, it is probable, that the spotted fallow-deer of the Cape of Good Hope, is the same animal.

We have already remarked, that no species approaches so near each other, as that of the fallow-deer to the stag: nevertheless, the axis appears to be an intermediate shade between the two. He resembles the fallow-deer in the size of his body, length of his tail, and his coat, which is the same during his whole life: the only essential difference is in his horns, which nearly resemble those of the stag. The axis, therefore, may be only a variety depending on the climate, and not a different species from that of the fallow-deer;for, although he is a native of the warmest countries of Asia, he exists and multiplies easily in Europe. There are many herds of them in the royal menagerie; and they produce together as freely as the fallow-deer. It has never, however, been observed, that they mix either with the fallow-deer, or with the stags, and this is the cause of our presuming, that they are not a variety of one or the other, but a particular and intermediate species. But as no direct and decisive experiments on this subject have yet been made, and as no necessary means has been used to oblige these animals to unite, we will not positively affirm that they are two different species.

We have already seen, under the articles of stag and fallow-deer, how many instances these animals give of varieties, especially in the colour of their hair. The species of the fallow-deer and stag, without being very numerous in individuals, is universally diffused; both are met with in either continent, and both are subject to a great number of varieties, which appear to form lasting kinds. The white stags, which are a very ancient race, since the Greeks and Romans mention them, and the small brown stags, which we have calledCorsican stags, are not the only varieties of this species. There is in Germany another race, known inthat country by the name ofBrandhertz, and by our hunters by that of theStag of Ardennes. This stag is larger than a common stag, and differs from other stags not only by its deeper colour, being almost black, but also by long hair upon the shoulders and on the throat. This kind of mane and beard give him some affinity, the first to the horse, and the latter to the goat. The ancients have given to this stag the compound names ofHippelaphusandTragelaphus. As these denominations have occasioned critical discussions, in which the most learned naturalists are not agreed, and as Gesner, Caius, and others, have said, that the hippelaphus was the rein-deer, we shall here give the reasons which have occasioned us to think differently, and have led us to suppose that the hippelaphus of Aristotle is the same animal as the tragelaphus of Pliny, and that both these names equally denote the stag of Ardennes.

Aristotle gives to his hippelaphus a kind of mane upon the neck and upon the upper part of the shoulders, a beard under the throat, horns to the male resembling those of the roe-bucks, and no horns to the female. He says, that the hippelaphus is of the size of a stag, and is found among the Arachotas,a people of India, where wild oxen are also to be met with, whose bodies are robust, their skins black, their muzzles raised, and their horns bent more backwards than those of the domestic oxen. It must be acknowledged, that Aristotle’s characters of the hippelaphus, agree nearly with those of the rein-deer and the stag of Ardennes; they both have long hair upon the neck and shoulders, and also on the throat, which forms a kind of beard on the gullet, and not on the chin; but the hippelaphus, being only of the size of the stag, differs in that from the rein-deer, who is much larger: and what appears to me decisive on the question is, that the rein-deer being an animal belonging to cold countries, never existed among the Arachotas. The country of the Arachotas is one of the provinces which Alexander travelled over in his expedition into India; it is situated beyond Mount Caucasus, between Persia and India. This hot climate never produced any rein-deer, as they cannot exist even in temperate countries, and are only to be met with in the northern regions of both continents. Stags, on the contrary, are not particularly attached to the north, but are to be found in great numbers in warm and temperateclimates. Thus we cannot doubt but the hippelaphus of Aristotle, which is met with among the Arachotas, and in the same countries with the buffalo, is the stag of Ardennes, and not the rein-deer.

If we now compare what Pliny says upon the tragelaphus with what Aristotle says upon the hippelaphus, and both with Nature, we shall find, that the tragelaphus is the same animal as the hippelaphus, and therefore the same as our stag of Ardennes. Pliny says, that the tragelaphus is of the stag species,[J]and only differs from him by the beard and the hair on his shoulders. These characters are positive, and can only be applied to the stag of Ardennes; for Pliny speaks elsewhere of the rein-deer under the name ofAlcé. We think ourselves, therefore, sufficiently warranted to pronounce, that the tragelaphus of Pliny, and the hippelapus of Aristotle, both denote the animal we call theStag of Ardennes; and that the axis of Pliny is the animal commonly called theGanges Stag. Though names have no influence on Nature, yet an explication of them is doing service to those who study her productions.

[J]Eadem est specie (cervi videlicet) barbâ tantum; et armorum villo distans quemtragelaphonvocant non alibi quam juxta Phasius amnem nascens.Pliny.Hist. Lib. viii. c. 33.

SUPPLEMENT.

In a letter I received from Mr. Colinson, in 1765, he informed me that the Duke of Richmond had several of the species of the Ganges Stags, or, as I have called it, Axis, in his park; that they lived familiarly with the fallow-deer, did not form separate herds, but even propagated together, and that from the intermixture beautiful varieties were produced.

There was a male and female Chinese fallow-deer in the royal menagerie in the year 1764; they were above two feet four inches in height; they were dark brown on the body and tail, mixed in several places with large yellow hairs, and yellow on the belly and legs. Though smaller than either the fallow-deer or axis, it was probably only a variety of the latter, and with whom it might intermix and be perpetuated even in France, especially as they are both natives of the eastern regions of Africa.[K]

[K]Sonniniobserves, that the snout of the axis is shorter than that of the stag, and his head is nearly as long as that of the fallow-deer.

Engraved for Barr’s Buffon

FIG. 145.Zebu.

FIG. 146.Tapir.

THE TAPIR.

The Tapir (fig. 146.) is the largest animal in America, of that New World, where, as we have before observed, animated Nature seems to be lessened, or rather has not had time to arrive at its full dimensions. In place of the colossal masses, which the ancient lands of Asia produce; instead of the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, camel, &c. we only meet in these new countries with animals modelled upon a small scale; the tapir, lama, pacos, and cabiais, are above twenty times smaller than those they should be compared with in the old continent. Matter is not only used here with prodigious parsimony, but even the forms are imperfect, and appear to have failed or been neglected. The animals of South America, which alone properly belong to this new continent, are almost all without tusks, horns, and tails; their figure is grotesque, their bodies and limbs ill proportioned, and some, as the ant-eaters, sloth, &c. are somiserably formed, that they scarcely have the faculties of moving or of eating; with pain they drag on a languishing life in the solitude of a desart, and cannot subsist in the inhabited regions, where man and powerful animals would have soon destroyed them.

The tapir is of the size of a small cow or zebu, but without horns or tail; his legs are short, and his body arched like that of a hog. When young his coat is spotted like that of the stag, and afterwards becomes of an uniform dark brown colour. His head is thick and long, with a kind of trunk like the rhinoceros; he has ten cutting teeth, and ten grinders, in each jaw; a character which separates him entirely from the ox, and other ruminating animals. As we have only some skins of this animal, and a drawing which M. de la Condamine favoured us with, we cannot do better than refer to the descriptions given of him from life, by Marcgrave[L]and Barrere[M], at the same time, subjoining what travellers and historians have said concerning him.

[L]Marcgrave’s Hist. Brasil.

[M]The tapir, or, as he is sometimes called, the Maipouri, is an amphibious animal, being as much in the water as on land; he has very short hair, interspersed with black and white hairs.Nat. Hist. par Barrere.

The tapir appears to be a dull and gloomyanimal, who never stirs out but in the night,[N]and delights in the water, where he oftener lives than upon land: he chiefly lives in marshes, and seldom goes far from the borders of rivers or lakes. When alarmed, pursued, or wounded, he plunges into the water, and remains under it until he has passed to a considerable distance. These customs, which he has in common with, the hippopotamus, have made some naturalists imagine him to be of the same species; but they differ as much from each other in nature as the climates are distant which they inhabit. To be assured of this, there needs no more than to compare the descriptions we have recited, with those we have given of the hippopotamus. Although the tapir inhabits the water, he does not feed upon fish; and although his mouth is armed with twenty sharp and incisive teeth, he is not carnivorous. He lives upon plants and roots, and makes no use of his weapons against other animals. He is of a mild and timid nature, and flies from every attack or danger. His legs are short, and his body heavy, but, notwithstanding, he runs very swift, and swims still better than he runs. His skin is of a very firm texture, and so boundtogether that it often resists a bullet. His flesh is insipid and coarse; nevertheless the Indians eat it. They commonly go in companies, and are found in Brasil, Paraguay, Guiana, and in all the extent of South America, from the extremity of Chili to New Spain.

[N]Sonnini says, that it is true the tapir goes out principally in the night, but he is also to be met with in the day.

Engraved for Barr’s Buffon

FIG. 147.Zebra.

FIG. 148.Hippopotamus.

THE ZEBRA.

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 thewild horseand thestriped 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.

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 ofonagre. In theLevant, 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 theonagres, orwild 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 weare informed that it is covered with small tubercules, and it is even said that theshagreenbrought 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.

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