RUMINANTIA. 191 



C.girofa, F. Cuv. Mammif. (The Giraffe.) Which is con- 

 fined to the deserts of Africa, and has short grey hair sprinkled 

 with fawn coloured angular spots, and a small fawn coloured 

 and grey mane. It is the tallest of all animals, for its head is 

 frequently elevated eighteen feet from the ground. Its disposi- 

 tion is gentle, and it feeds on leaves. Heliodorus gives a good 

 description of it, and one or two were brought into Italy in the 

 middle century. Several have lately been sent to Europe from 

 Egypt.(l) The 



RUMINANTIA WITH HOLLOW HORNS 



Are more numerous than the others, and we have been 

 compelled to divide them into genera from characters of but 

 little importance, drawn from the form of their horns and the 

 proportions of their diiferent parts. To these M. Geoffroy 

 h^s advantageously added those afforded by the substance of 

 the frontal prominence or the bony nucleus of the horn. 



Antilope.(2) 



The substan ce of the bony nucleus of the horns of the Antilopes is 

 solid, and without pores or sinus, like the antlers of the Stag. They 

 resemble the Stags moreover in the lightness of their figure and 

 their swiftness. It is a very numerous genus, which it has been 

 found necessary to divide, and principally according to the form 

 of the horns. 



a. Horns annulated, ivith a double curvature directed forwards, inivards 



or upwards. 



Ji. dorcas, L.; Buff. XII, xxiii. (The Gazelle.) Round, 

 large and black horns, and the size and graceful shape of the 

 Roebuck 5 light fawn colour above; w^hite beneath; a brown 

 band along each flank ; a tuft of hair on each knee, and a deep 

 pouch in each groin. It inhabits the north of Africa, and lives 

 in large herds, which form a circle when they are attacked, 

 presenting their horns at all points. It is the usual prey of the 



(1) M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, from some differences in the spots, and in the 

 curvature of the cranium of the few individuals in Europe, thinks that the Giraffe 

 of Nubia and Abyssinia is not of the same species as that from the Cape. 



(2) This name is not ancient ; it is a corruption of Antholops, a word found in 

 Eustathlus, who wrote in the time of Constantine, and which seems to refer to the 

 beautiful eyes of the animal. The common Gazelle was well described by iElian 

 under the name of Dorais, which is properly that of the Roebuck. He calls it the 

 Dorcas ofLyhia. Gazel is an Arabic word. 



