312 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



ing with, and was accepted as leader by, four of the big 

 Grant gazelles. We saw a zebra and an oryx which had 

 evidently become partners, and a hartebeest and a topi 

 which had done the same. We heard of a case in which 

 an old bull hartebeest had thus attached himself to a rhino. 

 Mr. Schillings, a capital observer and writer, was the first 

 naturalist to insist on this craving for companionship, this 

 genuine spiritual need of fellowship among these big ani- 

 mals. In his *' Flashlight and Rifle" he mentions the case of 

 a bull giraffe which entered into close alliance with two bull 

 elephants ; and he was able to bring out from Africa a young 

 rhino, alive, largely by providing it with companions in the 

 shape of two goats. Doubtless the element of added safety 

 against foes is largely, probably chiefly, responsible for such 

 companionship; but we think it also meets a real psychical 

 need of at least certain animals. 



The reticulated giraffe is marked on the neck by distinct 

 reticulations, formed by the large rufous squares being set 

 off sharply by narrow lines of white ground-color. This 

 color pattern is so distinctive from the usual blotched color- 

 ation of other giraffes that the race has been considered a 

 distinct species by many naturalists. Some specimens of 

 the Uganda giraffe, however, show as narrow reticulations, 

 but the ground-color is seldom so whitish in appearance. 

 The horns of the bull are well developed, the frontal horn 

 being especially large and is exceeded in height only by the 

 Uganda race. The body is marked by large squares of ru- 

 fous separated by ochraceous reticulations, and differs de- 

 cidedly from the small size and broken-edged spots of the 

 Masai giraffe. The legs from the knees and hocks down- 

 ward nearly as far as the fetlocks are reticulated by buffy- 

 whitish ground-color and tawny blotches. One of the dis- 

 tinctive color marks of this race is the carrying forward of 

 the reticulated pattern of the neck over the cheeks and the 

 upper throat to the chin. The mandible shows distinctive 



