230 



BRANCH VERTEBRATA. 



FIG. 398. 



and the spinous processes of the vertebrae. As its greatest 



enemy is the low-crouching 

 lion, that usually springs upon 

 its prey from behind, its eye is 

 so placed on the side of the 

 head, that it can see backward 

 as well as forward ; and, as 

 the danger is from below, 

 while its food is above, the 

 sensitive tufts on the tips of 

 its skin-covered horns indi- 

 cate, as it stalks among, the 

 trees, the presence of leaves 

 overhead. Its chief reliance 

 for defense is on rapid and 

 powerful kicks sufficient to 

 break the skull of a lion. The 

 tongue is prehensile and capa- 

 ble of lateral expansion, as 

 well as of great elongation. 

 Its colors harmonize with the 

 branchless trunks among 

 which it stalks.* 



The Ox family includes 

 those ruminants which have 



Giraffes feeding. , . , 



the horns covering bony cores 



as shells, which, with a single exception, are persistent. 

 Usually the females, as well as the males, are thus armed. 



* " In the case of the Giraffe, which is invariably met among venerable for- 

 ests, where innumerable blasted and weather-beaten trunks occur, I have re- 

 peatedly been in doubt as to its presence, until I had recourse to my spy-glass ; 

 and on referring the case to my savage attendants, I have known even their 

 optics to fail, at one time mistaking these dilapidated trunks for camelopards 

 (kd mZl' S pardz) and again confounding real camelopards with these aged veterans 

 of the forest." Cumminy's Adventures, 



