THE NORTHERN GIRAFFE I I I 



lights and shade of the surrounding thicket. When 

 out in the open the speed of these colossi readily 

 enables them to distance most of their enemies. 

 As may be gathered from observation of menagerie 

 specimens, giraffes when walking do not move 

 their fore and hind legs of opposite sides like 

 ordinary mammals, but the fore and hind leg of the 

 same side, like a camel. They have but two paces, 

 a walk and a gallop, breaking at once from one 

 into the other, as I was once fortunate enough to 

 observe in a Continental Zoo : the lucky snapshot 

 taken on that occasion is reproduced in this book. 

 Giraffes are well known to be silent animals. I 

 once heard the southern giraffe still living in the 

 London Zoo give a kind of coughing sneeze 

 the only recorded occasion, I believe, of these 

 animals ever having been known to make any 

 noise at all ! It was, however, probably caused by 

 some irritant in the nasal passages, and cannot be 

 called a vocal sound. In captivity both G. camel- 

 opardalis and G. capensis have a curious habit of 

 licking the walls of their enclosure for half an hour 

 or more at a time : the reason of this is not known. 

 Young individuals in menageries will indulge in 

 clumsy gambols, and strike out playfully with their 

 forefeet : a blow delivered, even in play, by so 

 powerful an instrument, would probably brain any 

 unfortunate attendant on whose head it happened 

 to alight. In spite of the gentle demeanour of 



