IO2 



NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



In adult males, even during life, the nodules in 

 the supra-occipital region become very prominent i 1 

 in a variety discovered in Uganda by Sir H. H. 

 Johnston, they are so much developed as to 

 constitute the animal a five-horned giraffe. 



(b) Differences in coloration. 



5. Upper part of face light fawn - 



color : median area (base of 

 horns to muzzle) dark fawn. 



6. Mane reddish brown. 



7. Ground colour white or fawn, 



marked with reddish choco- 

 late spots. Young bulls 

 having the ground colour 

 white are very beautiful 

 animals. 



8. The body markings consist of 



sharply defined spots of 

 polygonal shape : they are 

 relatively few, and in old 

 bulls there is a saddle-shaped 

 area on the back in which 

 the spots are separated by 

 whitish lines, recalling the 

 net work -pattern seen on the 

 Somali giraffe. In cows of 

 G. camelopardalis these 

 whitish lines may be replaced 

 by pale fawn. 



9. Abdomen and legs below knees 



and hocks almost free from 

 spots : but faint markings 

 in these situations may per- 

 sist to extreme old age 

 (twenty-seven years). 



Upper part of face greyish-white. 

 Median area blackish brown. 



Mane dark chestnut. 



Ground colour varies from white to 

 fawn, spotted with darker 

 fawn spots, often becoming 

 almost black along the back, 

 as seen in my photograph of 

 this species. 



Body markings consist of ir- 

 regularly-shaped spots with 

 deeply indented outlines, and 

 are relatively numerous. 



Abdomen and legs below knees 

 and hocks profusely spotted. 



Although the foregoing differences have only 

 been fully recognised of late years, it should be 



i I was much struck with this in 1902 when studying the old bull 

 giraffe then living in the Jardin d'Acclimatation at Paris. This 

 patriarch had a pair of incipient horns situated at the back of the 

 head immediately above the insertion of the nuchal muscles. Other 

 naturalists appear to have discovered these nodules independently 

 and have aptly designated the anterior, middle, and posterior projec- 

 tions as fore, main, and mizzen horns. 



