” 
i “ SPECIES ” OF GIRAFFE 303 
new-born young. The orbits are completely encircled by bone, 
and there is no lachrymal fossa, so common in Deer and Antelopes. 
There are no canines above; but these are present in the lower 
jaw. The rudimentary digits of other Ruminants have dis- 
appeared in this genus. ‘There are fourteen. pairs of ribs as in 
many other Artiodactyla. The liver of the Giraffe * is, as in 
many, but not all, Ruminants, devoid of a gall-bladder; neither 
has it a caudate or a Spigelian lobe. The caecum is actually 
largish (24 feet in length), but is relatively very small, as the 
small and the large intestines measure 196 and 75 feet in 
length respectively. The Giraffe has a well-marked “ ileo- 
caecal” gland, found in many Ruminants; its appearance in 
Girafia is especially compared by Garrod with its appearance in 
Alces. 
- Considered by itself, Giraffa forms a very isolated type of 
Ruminant. But after we have dealt with certain facts con- 
cerning extinct forms clearly allied to Giraffa, the isolation of 
the family will be found to be less marked. 
The Giraffe (“one who walks swiftly,” the word means in 
Arabic) 1s, as every one knows, limited in its range to the African 
continent. It is not, however, so familiar a fact that there are 
two quite distinct species of Giraffe, one a northern form from 
Somaliland, and the other South African. The distinctness of 
these two, G. camelopardalis and G. australis, has been lately 
worked out in some detail by Mr. de Winton.” The principal 
point of difference between them consists in the large size of the 
median horn in the Cape species, which is represented by the 
merest excrescence in the other species. The Giraffe of West 
Africa is held to differ from the northern and southern species, 
coming nearer to the former. It appears in the first place to be 
a larger animal, and slight differences in the skull have been 
pointed out. This series of peculiarities may be expressed, for 
those who do not object to trinomial nomenclature, by calling 
this novel western form Giraffa camelopardalis peralta. The 
existence of the three horns covered with unaltered skin is the 
main characteristic of this Ungulate. But the Giraffe also differs 
from other Artiodactyles by its enormously long neck, which 
oO 
enables it to browse upon trees inaccessible to the common herd 
1 For the viscera, see Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 5, etc. ; and ibid. p. 
289, etc. 2 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 273. 
