

332 UN GU LATA 



In addition to the characters noticed above, the Giraffe is 

 characterised by its great size and peculiar proportions ; the neck 

 and limbs being of great length, and the back inclining upwards 

 from the loins to the withers. 



To produce the extremely elongated neck the seven cervical 

 vertebrae are proportionately long, which gives a somewhat stiff and 

 awkward motion to the neck. The ears are large, the lips long and 

 thin, the nostrils closable at the "will of the animal, the tongue very 

 long and extensile, and the tail of considerable length, with a large 

 terminal tuft. An adult male may have a total height of 16 feet. 

 The coloration consists of large blotches of darker or lighter chestnut- 

 brown on a paler ground, the lower limbs and under parts being of 

 a uniform pale colour. The Giraffe feeds almost exclusively on the 

 foliage of trees, showing a preference for certain varieties of mimosa, 

 and for the young shoots of the prickly acacia, for browsing on 

 which its prehensile tongue and large free lips are specially adapted. 

 It is gregarious in its habits, living in small herds of about twenty 

 individuals, although Sir S. Baker, who hunted it in Abyssinia, 

 states that he has seen as many as a hundred together. 



Fossil sj)ecies of Giraffa occur in Pliocene deposits over Greece, 

 Persia, India, and China, thus affording one of many striking instances 

 of the former wide distribution of the generic types now confined to 

 the Ethiopian region. 



Allied Extinct Types. — The Pliocene deposits of many parts of the 

 Old World yield remains of a number of large Ruminants which show 

 such evident signs of affinity with the Giraffe that it is difficult to 

 draw up a definition by which they can be separated in characters of 

 family value from that genus. On the other hand, some of these 

 forms approximate in the characters of the skull to some of the 

 brachydont members of the Bovicke, although it is quite clear from 

 the nature of the cranial appendages that they cannot be included in 

 that family. All these forms have brachydont molars, with rugose 

 enamel, like those of the Giraffe ; while several of them have limb- 

 bones approximating to those of the latter — the humerus, when 

 known, having a double bicipital groove. The nature of the cranial 

 appendages (when present) is not fully understood, but it appears 

 that in some cases these approximated more to the type of an antler 

 than to that of a horn ; although, from the absence of a " burr," they 

 appear never to have been shed. A gradual diminution in the 

 length of the limbs and neck can be traced from the more Giraffoid 

 to the more Bovoid forms of this extinct group ; and it is manifest 

 that if these animals be included in the Gintffidce the definition of 

 that family as given above must be somewhat modified. Only brief 

 mention can be made of the more important genera. 



The imperfectly known Vishmitherium, of the Pliocene of India 

 and Burma, seems to make the nearest approach to the Giraffe, but 





