370 



GIRAFFE GROUP 



different from that of a horse or antelope. If not pressed beyond their 

 normal pace — which may be either a wonderfully rapid walk or an 

 awkward- looking kind of gallop — giraffes have great staying power ; but 

 if hustled beyond this, they are soon tired and blown. Accordingl}-, it is 

 the business of the hunter to force the pace as much as possible at the 

 beginning, and to get up with the herd within two or three miles. If 

 he fail in this, his horse, or pony, will inevitably be beaten. That such 

 tall animals should be able to penetrate quite thick scrub-jungle without 

 difficulty may seem incredible, and yet there is abundant testimony to 



Fig. 74. — Bull Somali Girafte, photographed by Lord Delamere in the Rendite district, 



north of Gwaso Nyiro. 



the effect that, owing to the thickness of their hides, they burst through 

 all such obstacles with the greatest ease, skirting tree-trunks with a 

 sudden swerve, and bending their long necks beneath branches with 

 surprising skill and swiftness. 



Giraffes are essentially browsing animals, and can only graze or 

 drink by straddling the fore-legs wide apart in an extremely ungainly 

 attitude. Leaves are stripped from the branches by means of the long 

 flexible tongue and the protruding and partially prehensile upper lip, 

 which, like its fellow, is covered with dense velvety hair, forming, it 

 would appear, an efficient protection against thorn-pricks. Probably 

 the teeth assist in " combing " the leaves from the branches ; and it 

 may be that the double crowns of the outer pair of lower front 



