318 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



ticulations of buff. The adult female is marked by bistre- 

 brown spots, while the calf is a light cinnamon-brown color. 

 Three adult bulls shot by Colonel and Kermit Roosevelt 

 near Ulu Station on the eastern edge of the Kapiti Plains are 

 remarkably uniform in color and have spotted legs which 

 are tawny in ground-color. The coloration of the series of 

 six specimens in the National Museum illustrates well the 

 great individual range and the danger of confusion which 

 may result from the description of races on single specimens. 



The common giraffe, or that variety of it occurring over 

 the southern portion of British East Africa, and the variety 

 known as the five-horned giraffe, are identical in their hab- 

 its with the reticulated giraffe. They live in the same 

 kinds of country, varying from desert to fairly well-watered 

 plains covered with a rather thin growth of acacia forest. 

 They browse; they drink when water is plentiful; and they 

 go without water for weeks if necessary. They are found in 

 small parties, or herds of twenty or thirty individuals, or 

 singly. They are usually the most wary of game; and 

 yet at times show foolish tameness. On one occasion, out 

 of a small herd of seven, two cows and a young one — the 

 only wary or sensible animal among them — were shot for 

 the museum; and the bull, the remaining calf, and the two 

 remaining cows hung round the neighborhood for some 

 hours, so little frightened that they permitted Kermit to 

 get good photos of them. In the land through which we 

 travelled we found that the giraffes slept standing; but, as 

 is the case with elephants, some individuals, and in some 

 localities all the individuals, habitually lie down to sleep. 

 We did not find the old bulls darker than the cows; some- 

 times an old bull was the lightest-colored animal in a herd, 

 and a small cow might be the darkest. 



