488 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



The Nigerian Giraffe appears to have decreased practically every- 

 where throughout its wide range, and it is scarcely to be regarded 

 as common anywhere unless in certain parts of French Equatorial 

 Africa. 



"Allied to the Nubian race [G. c. camelopardalis] , but distin- 

 guished by its paler coloration especially on the head and its 

 more numerous and differently arranged spots, a characteristic 

 feature being the white, sparsely spotted occipital region, and the 

 presence of a large fawn-coloured patch below the ears, covering 

 an area which is white in the Nubian race, and in other races marked 

 with small spots" (Lydekker and Elaine, 1914, vol. 3, p. 246). 

 "On the neck the blotches are of a somewhat darker fawn on a 

 whity-brown ground. These blotches are very large, few in number, 

 and separated by very wide interspaces .... The spots on the 

 back are pale chestnut-brown, with trefoil-shaped dark brown 

 centres. ... A constant distinction between the two forms would 

 appear to be the much greater number of the spots on the back 

 and flanks of peralta, these spots becoming much broken up on the 

 thighs." (Lydekker, 19056, p. 120.) 



The range limits of this subspecies have not been exactly deter- 

 mined (especially toward the east), but all Giraffes from Senegal on 

 the west to French Equatorial Africa on the east will be included 

 in the present account. The range appears to correspond roughly 

 to the western portion of the Sudanese Arid District of Bowen 

 (1933, pp. 256, 258). 



French Equatorial Africa. Despite eager hunting by the natives, 

 the Giraffe is still a rather common animal. It is particularly abun- 

 dant in the middle and southern parts of the Chad Territory, north 

 to Kanem and Manga; also north of Wadai some large herds are 

 found at Kobe (about 15 N.) near the Sudan frontier, and the 

 species even ranges in the Dar Zaghaoua to the wells of Orba and 

 the Wadi Howa (16 N.). Except for the real desert regions, there 

 are few places in Chad where the Giraffe is not found, but it 

 becomes really common only in sparsely populated regions where 

 there are thick growths of mimosa trees, the leaves of which are 

 its principal food. Its range changes according to the seasons and 

 also according to the hunting by the Arabs on horseback. Among 

 the areas where it is found most frequently are Baguirmi (along 

 the lower Shari) and Salamat and Dar Sila (south of Wadai). 

 More to the south it is also common between the Bahr Salamat 

 and the Aouk, east of Fort Archambault. It becomes rarer in Dar 

 Kouti, south of the Aouk. (Malbrant, 1936, pp. 100-101.) 



The Giraffe occurs in small numbers in the Ubangi-Shari dis- 

 trict northward from about latitude 8 N. (or even 7 on the 

 frontier of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan). These numbers increase to- 



