GIRAFFES 305 



from a specimen collected by A. H. Neumann, the well- 

 known elephant hunter, on the slopes of the Lorogi Moun- 

 tains in the Northern Guaso Nyiro district of British East 

 Africa. The name Somali giraffe is often applied to this 

 race, but it is quite misleading, as the giraffe is unknown in 

 Somaliland proper, reaching northward no farther than the 

 headwaters of the Webi Shebeyli River in southeastern 

 Abyssinia, where it has been met with by Donaldson Smith, 

 Major Wood, and a few other sportsmen. 



We found this very handsome giraffe only along the 

 Northern Guaso Nyiro. In habits we saw no difference 

 between it and the common giraffe; its range touched on 

 the northern range of two of the varieties of the latter, 

 but there was no apparent intergrading between them 

 here, whereas the two species of oryx of the same region, 

 the beisa of the Northern Guaso Nyiro, and the callotis of 

 south of the Athi, did show a tendency to intergrade. 



All giraffe are conspicuous animals which make no 

 effort to hide or escape observation, and which are always 

 on the lookout for their foes. At a distance such that the 

 spots on the coat cannot be seen, the general tint of the 

 common giraffe's coloration becomes neutral, so that in 

 many lights it does not stand out from the landscape, and 

 then it is only its size and shape that render it conspicuous. 

 But the handsome chestnut red of the reticulated giraffe 

 makes it conspicuous by its color, not merely near by, but 

 at a distance. We do not believe, however, that this dif- 

 ference in the revealing or advertising quality of the colora- 

 tion of the two giraffes makes any difference one way or the 

 other in the life-history of either. Probably no other ani- 

 mal is less capable of being helped or hurt by advertising 

 or concealing coloration than the giraffe. Although exclu- 



