" SPECIES " OF GIRAFFE 303 



new-born young. The orbits are completely encircled by bone, 

 and there is no lachrymal fossa, so common in Deer and Antelopes. 

 There are no canines above ; but these are present in the lower 

 jaw. The rudimentary digits of other Ruminants have dis- 

 appeared in this genus. There are fourteen pairs of ribs as in 

 many other Artiodactyla. The liver of the Giraffe l is, as in 

 many, but not all, Ruminants, devoid of a gall-bladder ; neither 

 has it a caudate or a Spigelian lobe. The caecum is actually 

 largish (2|- feet in length), but is relatively very small, as the 

 small and the large intestines measure 196 and 75 feet in 

 length respectively. The Giraffe has a well-marked " ileo- 

 caecal " gland, found in many Ruminants ; its appearance in 

 Giraffa is especially compared by Garrod with its appearance in 

 Alces. 



Considered by itself, Giraffa forms a very isolated type of 

 Ruminant. But after we have dealt with certain facts con- 

 cerning extinct forms clearly allied to Giraffa, the isolation of 

 the family will be found to be less marked. 



The Giraffe (" one who walks swiftly," the word means in 

 Arabic) is, as every one knows, limited in its range to the African 

 continent. It is not, however, so familiar a fact that there are 

 two quite distinct species of Giraffe, one a northern form from 

 Somaliland, and the other South African. The distinctness of 

 these two, G. camelopardalis and G. australis, has been lately 

 worked out in some detail by Mr. de Winton. a The principal 

 point of difference between them consists in the large size of the 

 median horn in the Cape species, which is represented by the 

 merest excrescence in the other species. The Giraffe of West 

 Africa is held to differ from the northern and southern species, 

 coming nearer to the former. It appears in the first place to be 

 a larger animal, and slight differences in the skull have been 

 pointed out. This series of peculiarities may be expressed, for 

 those who do not object to trinomial nomenclature, by calling 

 this novel western form Giraffa camelopardalis peralta. The 

 existence of the three horns covered with unaltered skin is the 

 main characteristic of this Ungulate. But the Giraffe also differs 

 from other Artiodactyles by its enormously long neck, which 

 enables it to browse upon trees inaccessible to the common herd 



1 For the viscera, see Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 5, etc. ; and ibid. p. 

 289, etc. * Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 273. 



