368 GIRAFFE GROUP 



southern representatives of this race, which is probably now almost or 

 quite exterminated. In the head and neck of a young and light- 

 coloured bull from the North Kalahari, presented to the British Museum 

 by Mr. Bryden, there is a decided tendency towards the netted type 

 of the Nubian race. 



A coloured figure of the true southern giraffe is given in plate xi. 

 of Sir Cornwallis Harris's Portraits of tJie Game and Wild Animals 

 of South Africa, which may be considered a fairly correct, although 

 perhaps somewhat highly coloured, portrait of the animal. According 

 to this, the ground-colour of the skin is bright orange-fawn, upon which 

 are large widely separated blotches, with ill-defined borders and the 

 centres markedly darker (deep chestnut) than the margins. On the 

 upper part of the limbs the spots tend to become somewhat irregular 

 and jagged in outline, and they gradually decrease in size as the 

 hoofs are approached. A white area is shown on the sides of the 

 head and neck below the ear. 



As regards the height attained by giraffes, i 8 feet 7 inches appears 

 to be the maximum record based on actual measurement, although it 

 is quite probable that statements as to the occurrence of specimens of 

 1 9 feet may be perfectly true. 



Although giraffes are still to be met with in greater or less 

 abundance in many parts of East and East Central Africa, both in 

 British and in German territory, as well as farther north in Kordofan 

 and Nubia, they have long since disappeared from the greater part of 

 South Africa, where they were formerly common in the country lying 

 between the Orange and the Zambesi rivers. Doubt has, indeed, 

 been expressed whether the species ever ranged to the southward of 

 the Orange river, despite a tradition among the Hottentots as to the 

 occurrence of these animals in the Amaebithorn district in the Queens- 

 town province of Cape Colony. In view of this tradition it seems a 

 decidedly bold step to affirm that giraffes never existed south of the 

 Orange river. Be this as it may, no giraffes have for many years 

 been found on the eastern side of the continent to the southward of 

 the north-eastern districts of the Transvaal, and even there they are 

 probably very scarce at the present day. 



In other districts, such as Portuguese East Africa, Matabililand, 

 Mashonaland, Khamaland, and the northern Kalahari, giraffes have, 

 however, held their own, at all events until quite recent times ; while in 

 the desert tracts of the northern part of the Kalahari they are likely 

 to survive for many years. Throughout this part of the Kalahari, as has 

 been already mentioned in the present volume, there is no permanent 



