GIRAFFE 



GIRAFFA CAMELOPARDALIS 

 SWAHILI : TWIGA. MASAI : OL-OADO-KIRAGATA 



IN proportion as the buffalo's sense of 

 hearing is so well developed, so is the 

 giraffe's sense of sight. 



Bar none in the jungle he has the most 

 extraordinary eyesight. It is extremely seldom 

 that you will see a giraffe before he has seen you. 

 And I do not think that that is necessarily on 

 account of his great height. They seem to have 

 the faculty of detecting moving objects. At eight 

 hundred yards and a thousand yards' distance one 

 will just see them quietly cantering away (if their 

 gait can be so described) for that reason. 



With their wonderfully long neck, which seems 

 to bulge slightly forwards at the junction with the 

 shoulders, their high withers and sloping back, 

 and then their long legs into the bargain, they 

 are a reminiscence of a prehistoric peep. 



When moving at what seems a slow sedate 

 canter, hardly placing one leg before the other 

 apparently, they are in reality covering the 

 ground to some purpose. Finally, their haughty 



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