304 INVISIBILITY OF GIRAFFE CHAP. 
of Ruminants. The neck is often supposed to have some relation 
to this method of feeding. But a more ingenious explanation of. 
its inordinate length is that it serves as a watch-tower. The 
long grass of the districts inhabited by the animal swarms with 
Lions and Leopards, which must be foes. The long neck allows 
of a wide look out being kept, and it is noteworthy that the 
Ostrich, living under similar conditions, is also renowned for its 
length of neck. It is the spots upon the Giraffe which have 
given it its name of Cameleopard; these spots present in the 
southern form a series of chocolate-coloured areas, sharply marked 
off by white spaces. Of these spots it is asserted that they 
serve as a means of concealing their possessor. Sir Samuel 
Baker’ wrote of it in the following words: “The red-barked 
mimosa, which is its favourite food, seldom grows higher 
than 14 or 15 feet. Many woods are almost entirely composed 
of these trees, upon the flat heads of which the giraffe can 
feed when looking downwards. I have frequently been mis- 
taken when remarking some particular dead tree-stem at a 
distance that appeared like a decayed relic of the forest, until 
upon nearer approach I have been struck by the peculiar inclina- 
tion of the trank; suddenly it has started into movement and 
disappeared.” 
The Giraffe, remarked Pliny, “is as quiet as a sheep.” The 
Roman public, to whom the first Giraffe ever brought into Europe 
was exhibited, expected from its name “to find in it a combina- 
tion of the size of the camel and the ferocity of a panther.” As 
a matter of fact, Giraffes in captivity are not always sheep-like in 
temper. They will kick with viciousness and vigour, and will 
even initiate an attack upon their keeper. At the same time 
they are singularly nervous creatures, and have been known to 
die from a shock. In moving, the Giraffe uses the fore- and hind- 
limb of each side simultaneously ; this gives to its gait a peculiar 
rocking motion, the ‘singularity of which is heightened by the 
curving movements of the long neck, which even describes now 
and then a figure of eight in the air. Giraffa camelopardalis 
and the species (?) already referred to are the only existing 
Giraffes (of the genus Giraffa), and they are not found out of 
Africa. Sir Harry Johnston has lately given a brief. account 
of a larger and more brilliantly coloured species from Uganda 
1 WVild Beasts and their Ways, 1890, p. 151. 
