NATURAL HISTORY 



189 



44 The elephant with pond'rous tread, 



The giraffe with exalted head." NEWMAN. 



Zoological Society once drove her horns through an inch 

 board.* 



562. There is another use which may be assigned to the horns. Surrounded as 

 they are with a thick tuft of hair, we are inclined to think that they are used as 

 instruments of feeling. The ox looks down upon the pasture ; but with the giraffe, 

 the order is inverted, its food being over and around its head. As the giraffe 

 carries its head beneath and through the branches of the trees, the long hairs upon 

 the erect horns come in contact with the leaves above them, and the animal, without 

 a constant effort to look up in fact, with its eyes turned down ard and backward, 

 to guard against enemies, is able to apprehend its food. Buffaloes, oxen, deer, &c., 

 have similar hairs upon their nostrils ; the giraffe is provided with them 0/50 upon 

 the points of its horns. 



563. Why are the nostrils of the giraffe thickly intersectti 

 with stiff hairs ? 



Because, while it browses among the branches of trees, it dis- 

 turbs a great number of insects, whose attacks would cause great 

 annoyance without this defence. For the same protective purpose, 

 the eyes are surrounded with unusually large eyelashes, and also 

 provided with a third or nictating membrane, which sweeps all 

 foreign matters from their surface. 



564. Wliy are the eyes of the giraffe set prominently near the 

 back of the head ? 



In that situation they are best adapted to keep watch against 



enemies, which usually spring 

 from behind. The chief de- 

 fence of the giraffe lies in that 

 direction ; from the vigour of its 

 muscles, the length of its legs, 

 and the consequent velocity of 

 the hoof, when it comes to the 

 position in which it can take 

 effect, the kick is truly a for- 

 midable one, and is said to ba 

 sufficient to break the skull of 

 a lion. 



Maunder'a " Natural History." 



