THE 



ZOOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, 



OR 



JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



The GIRAFFE, {(Camelopardalis Giraffa, Gmel.) 



XHE history of the Giraffe affords one of the most striking 

 examples of the slow and uncertain progress of Natural 

 History, and strongly points out the necessity of unwearied 

 research and repeated observation to ensure its advancement. 

 Indeed it appears scarcely credible that the quadruped which 

 exceeds every other in its lofty stature, which bears so remote 

 a resemblance to any in its extraordinary proportions, and is 

 equalled by so few in the beauty of its colouring, should 

 have remained till within sixty years of the present time so 

 obscurely known as to have had its very existence cast into 

 doubt. But the descriptions of this animal which appeared 

 in the middle ages having been overlooked, the more ancient 

 notices, vague and imperfect as they in general were, while 

 they seemed to ascribe to the camelopardalis a combination 

 of the characteristics of a ferocious beast of prey with those 

 of the harmless ruminant, began at length to be regarded 

 with the same degree of distrust as the fabulous narratives 

 of the unicorn and sphinx. 



In the year 1770, after three centuries -and a half had 

 elapsed without any example of the giraffe, dead or alive, 

 having appeared in Europe, this impression seems to have be- 

 come so general, that the Royal Society thought it proper to 

 publish in their Transactions the simple recital of a traveller 

 who had himself seen and procured a representation of the 

 living giraffe. Capt. Carteret, in his communication to that 

 learned body, says, " Inclosed I have sent you the drawing 

 of a camelopardalis, as it was taken off from the life, of one 

 near the Cape of Good Hope. I shall not attempt here to 

 give you any particular description of this scarce and curious 

 animal, as it is much better known to you than it can be to 

 me ; but from its scarcity, as I believe none have been seen 

 in Europe since Julius Caesar's time (when I think there 



Zool. Mag. No. 1. b 



