-♦) Giraffes 



position of the body, as well as by their peculiar " tail 

 language." 



In two cases I noticed the red-billed ox-pecker — that 

 true little friend of the rhinoceros — in the company of 

 giraftes, to which it oftered the same friendly services 

 as to all pachyderms. In a sense giraffes also are 

 pachydermatous. The skin of old bulls has in some 



A riloTOGRAril UF GIKAFFLS TAKK.X W 1 HI MV TELKI'lIOTO LE.NS 



parts such a thickness that it withstands every art of 

 the taxidermist, who finds it one ot his most difficult tasks 

 in the tropics, without the em[)loyment of salt and alum 

 baths, to preserve the skin for safe transport to museums 

 at home. 



Very few European museums have a stufted specimen 

 of the huge African male elephant or ot the huge old 

 giraffe bull. I have made many eftbrts to save the skins 



319 



