iv 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by Ottomar Antchutz] [Berlin. 



AFRICAN LEOPARD. 



An example of tlitt black-spotted type of coloration BO prevalent in 

 Garni vora. 



intelligence and the mind of the man-like 

 apes, the likeness both in form and action of 

 the latter to man has never failed to suggest 

 that there may have existed, or may even 

 still exist, a higher anthropoid ape nearer 

 to the human being than those now known. 

 The idea has taken shape in the term " the 

 missing link." The phrase is misleading in 

 itself. Such a creature would be no more 

 a link in the descent of man than one im- 

 perfectly developed limb of a tree is a link 

 between the other branches and the stem. 

 But it was always possible that we might 

 find another branch which had attained a 

 higher type than those terminating in the 

 gorilla or chimpanzee. Recent search seems 

 to have discovered the remains of such a 

 creature. 



photographic portraits of the animals will, by 

 the nature of things, present true and living 

 pictures, in place of the often curiously 

 incorrect and distorted objects, the product 

 of illustrators' fancy rather than the record 

 of facts, not infrequently seen in previous 

 illustrated natural histories. 



It is possible that while these pages are 

 in the press discoveries of new animals may 

 be made, or living representatives of creatures 

 supposed to be extinct may be discovered.* 

 One band of explorers is engaged in seek- 

 ing on the plains of South America for 

 recent remains and possible survivors of the 

 giant ground-sloths. Another expedition is 

 engaged, in the island of Java, in an even 

 more interesting quest. Great as is the 

 difference between even the lowest human 



EAST AFRICAN GIRAFFE. 



This photograph was taken in the wilds of Africa by Lord Delamere, 

 and shows the animal at home. The tree Is a mimosa, on the top shoots of 

 which the giraffe habitually feeds. 



* Since this was in type, Sir Harry Johnston has reported the existence in the Congo forest, on the borders of 

 Uganda, of a large unknown type of ruminant, the Akapi of the natives. 



