INTELLIGENCE., POWER, 



and mobile lips the giraffe plucks his meals from the thorny 

 mimosa. The currycomb appearance of the tongue made us 

 wonder if it is cleaning the body of offensive dust or debris 

 that makes licking each other a pastime with these animals. 



The energy-controlling organs of the giraffe, compared 

 with its body weight, were small. The adrenal glands were 

 only 20 per cent larger than the thyroid gland, about the 

 same relationship that is found in most of the antelopes. 



In the giraffe, horns are present in both sexes and make 

 their appearance even before birth. At first they are entirely 

 separate from the bones of the skull, but in later life they 

 become united with the skull and are invested with skin. 

 Although one can see no present-day use for horns in the 

 giraffe, when one considers his long phylogeny, an adequate 

 explanation for his keen eyes, keen ears, and keen nose is 

 seen; so possibly, when the giraffe was a smaller animal with 

 a shorter neck, the naked horns that now appear to be 

 slowly retrogressing had survival value. 



72 



