THE HARMLESS GIRAFFE 



the above circumstances even at twenty-five yards, from 

 which distance it was taken. 



The tall bull now saw me, stopped eating, and looked 

 carefully around; but as my gun bearer lay prostrated on 

 the ground behind a tree, and I remained perfectly im- 

 movable in a kneeling position, from which I had taken 

 the above picture, the giraffe seemed to think that he had 

 made a mistake, and soon began to feed again from the 

 top of the mimosa tree, every second or so looking in my 

 direction to be on his guard. By being exceedingly care- 

 ful to watch all his movements, I succeeded in creeping 

 unnoticed still more forward, until I had taken two more 

 photos, one at twenty and the other at fifteen yards, both of 

 which pictures unfortunately became sunstruck in some in- 

 explicable way, but which show how near it is possible to 

 creep up even to a wary giraffe, if one uses but a little 

 patience and cunning. As my roll of films was exhausted, 

 and it being entirely out of the question to recharge the 

 camera unnoticed then and there, I quietly rose and walked 

 with empty hands up toward the giraffe. Still he did not 

 notice me — a good wind blowing steadily from the animal 

 to me — before I had got up to within six or seven yards 

 of the magnificent old bull ! Then he made off at a heavy 

 gallop, increasing his speed as I shouted my thanks for 

 his " posing." 



There are in East Africa at least two distinctly dif- 

 ferent species of giraffe, which, however, in reality, differ 

 very little from each other. The only marked difference 

 between these two species is the shape of their heads, or 

 rather, the number of horns. The ordinary giraffe found 

 in the central and southeastern part of the Protectorate 



85 



