THE GIRAFFE AND OKAPI 97 



been described by Mr. Oldfield Thomas of the 

 British Museum. 1 This species, known as Giraffa 

 camelopardalis per alt a, was shot at the junction of 

 the Benue and Niger rivers a locality where these 

 animals were previously unknown by the late 

 Lieut. R. Hume-M'Quorquodale in 1897. Only 

 the skull and anterior cannon bones of this giraffe 

 reached England, and without further evidence it is 

 difficult to say that this species can be regarded as 

 a true one. 2 German naturalists have " separated as 

 new species two other forms of giraffe one from 

 Lake lassa, the other from the Kilimanjaro district 

 in German East Africa. These appear to be merely 

 local varieties, connecting the northern and southern 

 forms of the common or blotched giraffe, and can 

 hardly be looked upon as anything more than sub- 

 species. They have been dignified respectively by 

 the titles Giraffa tippelskirchi and Giraffa schillingsi. 



Giraffes, as I have said, were known to the Romans, 

 from whom they took their designation camelopardalis. 

 Except upon one or two occasions, they were there- 

 after completely forgotten and lost sight of until 

 the close of the eighteenth century. Lorenzo de 

 Medici exhibited one of these animals at Florence 

 during the latter part of the seventeenth century; but 

 otherwise the animal remained unknown until 1773, 

 when Colonel Gordon, a Scottish officer in the 



1 Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1898, p. 40. 



2 The skin of a head and neck of this giraffe have, since this was written, 

 been added to the collection in the Natural History Museum. This has all the 

 appearance of a very pale specimen of the old Nubian giraffes, long familiar at 

 the Zoological Gardens. 



