AT THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY'S GARDENS. 25 



peculiar functions. The maternal instincts of the brute may be compared to a complex 

 machine, of which the tirst wheel being set in action, the other movements duly succeed 

 each other, but otherwise are not brought into play. In the present instance, the 

 separation of the umbilicus was not effected by the teeth of the parent, nor the removal 

 of the saline moisture of the new-born animal by her tongue. Man stepped in with 

 his uncalled-for aid, and the natural introduction of the mother to her offspring 

 never took place. The result, however, could not have been anticipated ; and had any 

 untoward accident occurred, blame would have been more justly incurred, if the atten- 

 tion and assistance, which I am disposed to deprecate in a second instance, had not 

 been so promptly rendered, as, to the credit of all parties concerned, was done in this 

 first occurrence of the birth of a Giraffe in a European menagerie. With the confi- 

 dence that the naturalist must have in the powers of the parent Giraffe to safely pro- 

 duce and render all proper aid to her own offspring, I should recommend, that in the 

 event of a second gestation, the mother and her produce should be kept in a secluded 

 place, without interruption or interference of any kind. 



Of the Fcetal Membranes. 



These were expelled about five hours after the birth of the fcetus. 



The chorion formed a sac of considerable dimensions, as may be readily supposed 

 from the large size of the young animal which it had included : a considerable portion 

 of the chorion with the adherent vascular layer of the allantois, forming the so-called 

 endochorion, was preserved and transmitted to me for examination. Numerous coty- 

 ledons were developed from the external surface of this portion of the chorion ; the 

 larger or regularly formed cotyledons were most of them arranged in longitudinal rows, 

 corresponding with the disposition of the cotyledonal processes of the uterus, described 

 in my previous paper ; they presented an oval or reniform figure, and were attached to 

 the chorion by a contracted base ; they were composed of long, delicate, slightly 

 branched villi, much finer than those of the cotyledons of the chorion of the Cow, and 

 more resembling those of the Deer : the largest of these cotyledons measured four 

 inches in the long diameter ; their average size is shown in Plate II. Fig. 2 ; the longi- 

 tudinal arrangement and contracted or subpedunculate base of attachment is accu- 

 rately represented in a reduced view of a small part of the chorion in Plate II. Fig. 1. 

 Besides the larger cotyledons, there were numerous smaller ones, of irregular form and 

 unequal dimensions, developed from the external surface of the chorion in the interspace 

 of the normal cotyledons : these smaller ones varied in diameter from two inches to two 

 lines ; their component villi were proportionally short, and, in the smallest ones, simple 

 and unbranched ; so that the parts of the chorion where these were thickly scattered, 

 presented a structure approaching to that of the non-placentiferous chorion of the Camel 

 and certain Pachyderms ; the smooth portions of the chorion were more vascular than 

 in the ordinary Ruminants. 



VOL. III. P.\RT I. E 



