NATURAL HISTORY. 117 



with its mouth, nor does it often attempt to do so, unless it is 

 bribed with something of which it is very ibnd, such as a 

 lump of sugar. It then straddles widely with its fore-legs, 

 and with some trouble succeeds in reaching the object aimed 

 at. This attitude was noticed and copied in the Prensestine 

 pavement. 



The appearance of this animal in its native haunts is very 

 magnificent. "These gigantic and exquisitely beautiful ani- 

 mals, which are admirably formed by nature to adorn the 

 forests that clothe the boundless plains of the interior, are 

 widely distributed throughout the interior of Southern Africa, 

 but are nowhere to be met with in great numbers. In 

 countries unmolested by the intrusive foot of man, the Giraffe 

 is found generally in herds varying frcm twelve to sixteen ; 

 but I have not unfrequently met wiih herds containing thirty 

 individuals, and on one occasion I counted ibrty together ; 

 this, however, was owing to chance, and abcut sixteen may 

 be reckoned as the average number of a herd. These herds 

 are composed of Giraffes of various sizes, frcm the young 

 Giraffe of nine or ten feet in height, to the dark chestnut 

 coloured old bull of the herd, whose exalted head towers 

 above his companions, generally attaining to a height of 

 upwards of eighteen feet. The iemales are of lower stature, 

 and more delicately formed than the males, their height 

 averaging from sixteen to seventeen feet. Seme writers have 

 discovered ugliness and a want of grace in the Giraffe, but I 

 consider that he is one of the most strikingly beautiful 

 animals in the creation ; and when a herd of them is seen 

 scattered through a grove of the picturesque parasol-topped 

 acacias which adorn their native plains, and on whose upper- 

 most shoots they are enabled to browse by the colossal height 

 with which nature has so admirably endowed them, he must, 

 indeed, be slow of conception who fails to discover both grace 

 and dignity in all their movements. There can be no doubt 

 that every animal is seen to the greatest advantage in the 

 haunts which nature destined him to adorn, and among the 

 various living creatures which beautify creation. I have 

 often traced a remarkable resemblance between the animal 

 and the general appearance of the locality in which it is 

 found. 



