128 



THE TWO-TOED ARTIODACTYLA. 



were found. Now these tamed breeds must, 

 through the wanderings of tribes, through 

 mutual exchanges of many kinds, have got 

 mixed together, and new breeds would aH 

 the more easily be formed since all these 

 races are mutually fertile. 



As a proof of what we have now advanced 

 we may point to what has actually happened 

 in Africa. On that continent no Quaternary 

 cattle have yet been found, and, with the 

 exception of the variety of races introduced 

 in recent times by the Europeans, we may 

 probably say that the whole of the interior 

 of the continent was peopled by various 

 zebu races, from which in some cases the 

 hump has disappeared. It is accordingly 

 probable that the native African races were 

 introduced from India and have become more 

 or less modified on this continent. Now the 

 ancient Egyptians already knew and reared 

 three different races of cattle, as is proved 

 by numerous representations; one race with 

 long horns was greatly reverenced because 

 it produced the bull Apis, a second had short 

 horns, and the third had a hump, consisted 

 in fact of true zebus. This is a clear proof 

 that in that long-past epoch importations had 

 already been made from other countries, and 

 in particular from Central Asia, where there 

 are no zebus. 



If now in Europe alone there are three 

 ancient stocks which have been continued in 

 varieties of domesticated cattle of the present 

 day, there is no reason to reject the opinion 

 which supposes the same thing to have taken 

 place in Asia, where the species which are 

 still found partly tame and partly wild have 

 certainly contributed to the production of 

 mixed races and of breeds more or less 

 modified by domestication. From all these 

 facts it would result as a final conclusion that 

 tame cattle are not, as Linnaeus called them, 

 a separate species, Bos taurus, but a mixed 

 product of extremely numerous and very 

 diverse factors, developed in widely separated 

 regions of the Old World. 



THE GIRAFFE FAMILY 



(DEVEXA). 



The family of the giraffes, which on account 

 of their very sloping back have been called 

 Devexa, is composed of only a single species, 

 confined to Africa, namely the Giraffe (Came- 

 lopardalis gira/a), PI. XXXIII. 



This is without doubt one of the most 

 singular types that can be seen, and we can 

 easily understand the astonishment of the 

 beholders when they first set eyes on the 

 small head carried at the extremity of an ex- 

 cessively long neck about twenty feet above 

 the ground, and the short body with its steep 

 backward slope elevated on legs not less long 

 or less stiff. Notwithstanding its beautiful 

 coat and its splendid eyes the giraffe must 

 certainly be pronounced one of the most 

 disproportioned of mammals, one in which 

 everything is stiff and angular. 



The head is relatively very small and 

 rather long and narrow. It ends in a muffle 

 with very mobile lips, and is adorned with 

 two short horns covered with hair set upon 

 the occipital bone, as well as with a swelling 

 between the large prominent eyes, which are 

 placed at the side, and are distinguished by 

 their brilliancy and their gentle but lively 

 expression. The pointed funnel-shaped ears 

 are longer than the horns. The tongue is 

 worthy of special note. It is long, worm-like, 

 dark-blue in colour, very flexible, and capable 

 of serving as a tactile and prehensile organ. 

 The giraffe twines this tongue round the twigs 

 and leaves of the trees on which it feeds. 

 Although, as in almost all other mammals, 

 the neck of the giraffe has only seven verte- 

 bra;, it is yet of immoderate length. It is by 

 no means flexible, and is almost always carried 

 erect. The short thick body is remarkable 

 on account of the steep slope of the back 

 from the shoulders to the croup, a slope 

 which is due to the increasing length from 

 behind forwards of the spiny processes of the 



