ZOOLOGY 375 



of white bifurcated bristles on the muzzle. It is the last vestige of the 

 hair which once covered this animal's body before it took so markedly to 

 an aquatic existence. It is just possible that the natives' stories of a 

 huge pig in the Semliki forests may point to the extension of the range 

 of the Liberian or pygmy hippopotamus (a forest-loving animal) right 

 across through the forest zone from the west coast of Africa to the 

 Semliki Kiver. The Belgians state that there is a very small hippo- 

 potamus in the south-western part of the Congo Free State. 



As regards the pig family, that group of artiodactyles is represented in 

 the Uganda Protectorate by the Ethiopian wart-hog in the west and centre 

 and south-east, and by the Elian's wart-hog in the north-east; also by 

 the bush-pigs, or river-hogs. Of these there are the common East African 

 species, which is widely distributed throughout the Protectorate, and the 

 red river-hog of West Africa, which is found in the Semliki Forest. 



It may be ot" interest to mention that the camel as a domestic animal 

 has penetrated into the Kudolf and Nile Provinces of the Uganda Pro- 

 tectorate, though this creature in pre-historic times was once found in 

 Algeria and Arabia. There is nothing to show that it was ever indigenous 

 to tropical Africa. 



The giraffe is found at the present day in the Eastern Province of the 

 Uganda Protectorate, in the northern part of the Central Province, and 

 in the districts east of the Nile. So far as I know, in the north and 

 south-east of the Protectorate the species or variety of giraffe is that 

 known as the northern or three-horned, the ordinary form of giraffe which 

 is found right across the Sudan from Abyssinia to Senegambia. (In the 

 Niger and Benue districts it is replaced by a distinct and very tall species, 

 Giraffa peralta.) But in the north-eastern part of the Protectorate, about 

 Lake Baringo and jNIount Elgon, tlie male giraffes possess five horn-bumps 

 or ancient horn-cores. I first heard of this peculiarity from a Goanese 

 ivory-trader ; but as lie had no specimen to show me, I did not attach 

 much importance to his remarks. In the month of May, 1901, we were 

 leturning from a journey round Blount Elgon, and for the first time in 

 the Uganda Protectorate I found myself among large herds of girafle. 

 I was anxious to secure good specimens for the British Museum. 

 ^Ir. Doggett and myself therefore shot two males and two females, I was 

 surprised to notice that eacli of the males had five horn-bumps,* the 

 females being restricted to three. The four heads thus procured are 

 now in the British ^Museum at South Kensington. I give here a photo- 

 gra})h of a male five-horned giraffe as it lay on the ground just after 



* The two extra "horns " are two parallel bumps or knobs rising from the ridge at 

 the base of the skull, close to the first vertebrum. They are occipital as compared with 

 already existing parietal and frontal protuberance?. 



