MAMMALIA. 649 



B. Feet loithout supplementary hoofs. 



Camelopardalis Bodd., Schreb., Gmel. (spec, of Cervus L., 



6^/m^a Beiss.). Canines none. Two frontal horns in both sexes, 



conical and truncated, short, covered with hairy skin, persistent. 



Neck very long. Fore^feet longer than hind feet. Tail moderate, 



with extremity setose. 



Sp. Camelopardalis giraffa Gmel., Cervus Camelopardalis L., Vosmaeb 

 Beschrijving van het Kameelpaard, 1787, with fig., Geoffe. Saint-Hilaike 

 et F. CuviER, Mammif., Livr. 61, Ann. des Sc. nat. Tome XI. 1827, PI. 22, 

 GUEKIN Iconogr., Mammif. PI. 45, Cuv. R. Ani., ed. ill., Mammif. PI. 

 89 ; the skeleton in Pander u. D'Alton 1. 1. Tab. i. 11. ; the giraffe is the 

 tallest of the mammals ; when standing up the height from the vertex to 

 the hoof of the forefoot is from 16 to 18 feet. The colour is light yellow, 

 with large, red-brown spots. The horns continue for a long time as distinct 

 e2np)hys€s; a broad swelling at tlie fore part of the frontal bones, which 

 increases with age, has been incorrectly described as a third horn. The 

 tongue is long and possessed of great mobility; it is used by the animal 

 to strip from trees the leaves on which the giraffe feeds ; these are princi- 

 pally of the Mimosce. Besides this it grazes, without kneeling, with the 

 fore feet widely straddling. In its flight it gallops with the fore legs stiff 

 in rising and falling ; at other times it has an ambling gait. The period 

 of gestation is 14 months, and the young is very large at the time of birth. 

 The giraffe is found in Nubia and Abyssinia, also in South Africa. This 

 animal was known to the ancients and had been brought sometimes to 

 Eome, Plinius, Lib. viii. c. 18. 



See on the anatomical peculiarities Owen Notes on the Anatomy of the 

 Nubian Giraffe, Transact, of the Zool. Soc. 11. 3, 1839, pp. 217 — 248, PI. 

 40 — 45 ; the same On the birth of the Giraffe at the Zool. Gardens, ibid. 

 III. X, 1842, pp. 21 — 28, PI. I, 2; Sebastian AanteeJceningen by het ontle- 

 den van eene Nubische Giraffe, Tijdschr. voor natuu/rl. Gesch. en Physiol. 

 XII. 1845, bl. 185 — 224, PI. II.; Jolt et Lavocat Recherches hist., zool., 

 anat. et paleontologiques sur la Giraffe, Mem. de la Soc. d'Hist. nat. de 

 Strasbourg, iii. 3 Livr. (1846), pp. i — 124 av. 17 PI. The giraffe has, as 

 LiNN^us indicated by his arrangement, the closest afiinity with the deers, 

 although in some respects it approaches the antelopes. 



In the neighbourhood of this genus is usually placed the Siratherium, 

 Cautley and Falconer, of which the remains were discovered in Sevalik, 

 a branch of the Himalayan mountains. 



Family XIX. Cavicornia. Incisor teeth ^ , canines none, 

 molars ^ — ^ . Horns in both sexes or only in males, composed 



1 [See note p. 646. The outer incisors in the lower jaw are representatives of 

 canines, as shewn by the analogy of the camels, by the lateness of their development, 

 and by their frequent peculiarity of form. Owen Odontogr. p. 540.] 



