1029 



GIRAFFA. 



GIZZA11D. 



1030 



Alexandria and Malta, besides the voyage to England. They suffered 

 considerably at sea, during a passage of twenty-four days in very tem- 

 pestuous weather, and on reaching Malta in November they were 

 detained in quarantine twenty-five days more ; but despite all these 

 difficulties they reached England in safety, and on the 25th of May 

 were conducted to the gardens. At daybreak the keepers and several 

 gentlemen of scientific distinction arrived at the Brunswick Wharf, 

 and the animals were handed over to them. The distance to the 

 gardens was not less than six miles, and some curiosity, not unmingled 

 with anxiety, was felt as to how this would be accomplished. Each 

 giraffe was led between two keepers by means of long reins attached 

 to the head : the animals walked along at a rapid pace, generally in 

 advance of their conductors, but were perfectly tractable. It being 

 BO early in the morning few persons were about, but the astonishment 

 of those who did behold the unlooked-for procession was ludicrous in 

 the extreme. As the giraffes stalked by, followed by II. Thibaut 

 and others in Eastern costume, the worthy policemen and early 

 coffee-sellers stared with astonishment, and a few revellers, whose 

 reeling steps proclaimed their dissipation, evidently doubted whether 

 the strange figures they beheld were real flesh and bone, or fictions 

 conjured up by their potations ; their gaze of stupid wonder indi- 

 cating that of the two they were inclined to the latter opinion. 



' When the giraffes entered the park, and first caught sight of the 

 preen trees, they became excited and hauled upon the reins, waving 

 the head and neck from side to side, with an occasional caracole and 

 kick-out of the hind legs, but M. Thibaut contrived to coax them 

 along with pieces of sugar, of which they were very fond, and he had 

 the satisfaction of depositing his valuable charges without accident 

 or misadventure in the sanded paddock prepared for their reception. 

 The sum agreed on with M. Thibaut was 2501. for the first giraffe 

 he obtained, 200/. for the second, 1501. for the third, and 1001. for the 

 fourth in all 7001. ; but the actual cost to the society amounted to 

 no less than 23S6J. 3*. Id., in consequence of the heavy expenses of 

 freight, conveyance, 4c." 



One of these animals (a male) died shortly after its arrival. In 

 1838 the following were the measurements of the three survivors : 



Ouib Allah (male) . 



Selim (male) 



Zuida (female) . . 



When they arrived at the gardens on the 24th of May 1836, Guib 

 Allah could reach only to 11 feet 6 inches, so that he has grown since 

 that time 2 feet 2 inches. The others have grown in proportion. 

 The length of the mane in one of the males and in the female is 

 2j inches, and in the other male 24 inches. 



Since this time the female has produced several young ones, which 

 have been sold, and are still living in various parts of the world. 

 They seem to bear confinement very well, although it should be 

 remembered that their apartments in the Society's gardens are very 

 airy and well ventilated. Two females have since been added to the 

 collection in the gardens. 



They are fed principally on the best hay, placed in high racks ; 

 they like a carrot, and are very fond of onions ; lump-sugar is also a 

 favourite treat to them. They each eat about ISlbs. of food a day, 

 and drink four gallons of water. 



The erroneous statement that the fore legs are longer than the 

 hind legs has been repented so frequently and so lately by authorities 

 which deservedly have weight, that it becomes necessaiy to give the 

 result of examination of the skeleton. In reality the hind legs, taking 

 the limbs only from their getting on, are longer than the fore legs by 

 about one inch. A measurement taken from the head of the humerus 

 to the end of the ungueal phalanges in the fore foot, gives an inch less 

 in length than a measurement taken from the head of the femur to 

 the end of the ungueal phalanges in the hind foot. 



Neither Mr. Swainson nor Mr. Ogilby gives any specific characters 

 for the two species named by them, and but one species is recognised 

 by Dr. Gray. If, as Professor Owen's observations tend to show, there 

 is no third horn in the forehead of the northern male giraffes, we do 

 not exactly see on what the specific character is to rest. The dark 

 colour of the adult male of Southern Africa, if it should prove to 

 differ from that of the northern male, would not, it is submitted. 

 iction more than variety. The specimens presented by Mr. Burchel 



to the British Museum came from Kosi Fountain, and the difference 



tawny. Mr. Steedman, in his ' Wanderings 

 Interior of Southern Africa' (1835), says that the giraffes are found 

 on the open plains several days' journey to the north of Litakpu in 

 imall troops of six or ten individuals, and that they feed principally 

 upon the various dwarf species of Acacia* which grow abundantly ii 

 the arid deserts. The writer adds that, though formerly found within 



* Sir Everard Home states that the favourite species is Acacia Xariffiana 

 named from Zariffa, the Giraffe. I.e Vaillant says that the sort of tlimot 

 on which it feeds is called ' Kanaap ' by the natives, and ' Kameldoorn ' by th 

 colonists. 



lie boundaries of the Cape of Good Hope, they have not for many 

 ears past been known to pass the Gareep, or Orange River, which 

 eparates it from the Griqua and Coranna country ; and he notices 

 heir moving the fore and hind feet of the same side, and then the 

 pposite pair altern ately, exhibiting the pace which is usually called 

 n amble ill horses. 



Giraffa (Camclopardalis Giraffa}. 



Those who wish to obtain further information on the Giraffe 



should consult the works of Klein, Schreber, Vosmaer, Zimmerman, 



and Lichtenstein ; also Sir W. C. Harris's ' Portraits of the Game 



and Wild Fowl of South Africa,' and Captain Gordon Cuniiug's 



Adventures.' 



GIZZARD, the muscular or pyloric division of the stomach in birds. 

 In these animals the stomach is divided into two parts. The lower 

 oesophagus (the canal which is continued from the crop to the stomach) 

 first dilates into a cavity called the proventriculus, or glandular divi- 

 sion of the stomach ; this has a very vascular lining membrane, and 

 is furnished with numerous large follicles, or glands, placed between 

 the mucous and muscular coats, which secrete a solvent fluid very 

 similar to the gastric juice in Mammalia. This first division of the 

 stomach mostly terminates immediately in the gizzard, which is 

 situated below the liver, on the left side of the abdomen, resting on 

 the intestines. This organ has more or less a lengthened form, and 

 is furnished at its upper part with two openings, the cardiac and 

 pyloric, which are close together ; the former communicates with the 

 proventriculus and the latter with the intestines. Below those open- 

 ings the gizzard dilates into a pouch, in the middle of the anterior 

 and posterior sides of which is a tendon to which muscular fibres are 

 attached. In birds of prey, whose food is easily digested, the gizzard 

 is a mere membranous cavity ; but in graminivorous birds it is fur- 

 nished with muscles of great power, which are arranged in four masses : 

 the two largest, which are situated anteriorly and posteriorly, are 

 connected with the central tendons, and are called the digastric 

 muscles ; between these are two thinner ones. 



The lining membrane of the gizzard is very hard and thick, and 

 opposite to the digastric muscles two callous spots are formed by the 

 pressure and friction. The muscles take up so much room in the 

 stomach of graminivorous birds that the crop is a necessary appendage 

 to the gizzard, and transmits the food, little by little, to be digested. 

 The food is triturated in the gizzard by the immediate agency of hard 



