GIRAFFES 317 



southward to central German East Africa at least; limits 

 of range unknown. 



A specimen of giraffe from Lake Eyasi in the Rift Valley 

 of German East Africa collected by Herr von Tippelskirch 

 was made the type of the Masai race by Matschie in 1898. 

 Previous to this sportsmen had been accustomed to separat- 

 ing the giraffe into two races, a northern form having a 

 high frontal horn and unspotted legs and a southern, which 

 lacked the frontal horn and had blotched or spotted legs. 

 The equator roughly marked the dividing line of these two 

 forms, the reticulated and the Uganda giraffe being classi- 

 fied as members of the typical or northern race, camelo- 

 pardalis, and the Masai with the Cape race, capensis. 

 The Masai giraffe, however, differs widely from the South 

 African by the well-developed nature of the frontal horn 

 and the peculiar stellate or dissected margins of the dorsal 

 blotches. By this latter characteristic it can at once be 

 distinguished from the other equatorial races. The body 

 spots differ not only by their jagged outline but also by 

 their much smaller size, there being fully twice as many in 

 an area of equal size. The stellate character of the spots 

 appears to be quite the same from youth to old age. The 

 blotches of the neck, however, are regular in outline and 

 are quite indistinguishable from those of the Uganda race. 

 A specimen from Taveta, Kilimanjaro, in which the legs are 

 unspotted has been described as schillingsi by Matschie, 

 but it has been shown by Lydekker that spotted-legged 

 specimens also occur at Kilimanjaro and that the colora- 

 tion of the legs is subject to much individual variation. 

 There are in the National Museum six specimens of this 

 race from British East Africa, five of which have spotted 

 legs and one, an adult female, unspotted, uniformly light 

 buff-colored legs, quite like those of the Uganda race. This 

 individual was shot on the Loita Plains from a herd of six, 

 together with two others, an immature female and a calf, 

 both of which have spotted legs. The calf was the off- 

 spring of the adult cow, and the immature specimen doubt- 

 less bore the same relation, for they were closely associated 

 together in a small herd. The range of coloration in the 

 dorsal blotches of these three is really great. The imma- 

 ture cow is quite the darkest giraffe examined of any race 

 and is a uniform seal-brown relieved by narrow broken re- 



