GIRAFFE. 



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the other part of the name, parti, which means leopard 

 or panther, or in fact any of the larger spotted animals 

 of the cat tribe, with which the giraffe has nothing in 

 common, farther than it is also a spotted animal. 



The first account which we have of the giraffe being 

 publicly exhibited to the Romans, was by Caesar at 

 the Circensian games ; but from the representations 

 ot'it that remain in ancient mosaics, especially in the 

 Przenestinc pavement, in which it is represented both 

 browsing the branches over it and in grazing the more 

 humble vegetation under, there is reason to believe 

 that it had not been rare in the subsequent period of 

 Roman history. The Romans obtained their wild 

 animals for exhibition chiefly from northern Africa, 

 where no giraffes are now to be found ; and this 

 would lead us to conclude that northern Africa has 

 undergone considerable changes since that period, 

 and that, as the desert has encroached upon what was 

 formerly the most fertile possession of man in Egypt, 

 so it has, in like manner, encroached on the pastures 

 of wild animals all round, until many of those which 

 which were common over great part of the African 

 continent at one period of history, are now confined 

 within comparatively narrow bounds. 



The giraffe is mentioned by several ancient writers, 

 but the earliest correct account of it which has come 

 down to us, is that given by Heliodorus the Greek bishop 

 of Sicca, in Ma JE'thiopica ; " The ambassadors of the 

 AxeomitsB (the Abyssinians)," says the bishop, 

 " brought presents to Hydaspes, and, among other 

 things, there was an animal of a strange and wonder- 

 ful species, about the size of a camel, which had its 

 skin marked with florid spots ; the hinder parts from 

 the loins were low, like those of the lion, but the 

 shoulders, fore-feet, and breast, were elevated above 

 proportion to the other parts ; the neck was small, 

 and lengthened out from its large body like that of a 

 swan ; the head in form resembled a camel's, but was 

 in size about twice that of a Lybian ostrich, and it 

 rolled its eyes, which had a film over them, very 

 frightfully. It differed in gait from every other land 

 or water animal, and waddled in a remarkable manner ; 

 each leg did not move alternately, but those on the 

 right side moved together, independently of the other 

 and those on the left in the same manner, so that 

 each side was alternately elevated. This animal was 

 so tractable as to be led by a small string fastened to 

 the head, and the keeper'could conduct it wherever 

 he pleased, as if with the strongest chain. When it 

 appeared it struck the whole multitude with terror, 

 and it took its name from the principal parts of its 

 body, being called by the people, extempore, camelo- 

 pardalis." 



The word giraffe, which has been adopted as the 

 iijodern name, is understood to be African, though il 

 is said to be derived from an Arabian corruption o 

 the original term. It is of little consequence, how- 

 ever, by what name this animal may be called ; for 

 there is no danger of confounding either its appear- 

 ance or its characters with those of any other known 

 animals. 



It stands alone ; and though it is decidedly a ru- 

 minating animal, and one of the most gentle of the 

 whole order, though timid and exceedingly difficul 

 to capture when in the wild state, it has little in com 

 mon with any other. The length of the neck, the 

 callous appendages on the knees and the sternum 

 give it some resemblance to the camel ; and the heac 

 also has some slight analogy to the head of that ani 



mal ; but here the resemblance ends. The body, 

 vhich is very handsome, is peculiar in its form ; and 

 he legs, though they exceed in length those of every 

 cnown animal, partake of the joint characters of those 

 f the horse and the antelope ; while the tail is not 

 inlike that of the ox tribe. The feet agree with 

 hose of the horse, in being without the spurious hoofs 

 vhich mark most of the ruminant animals, and in the 

 peculiar enlargement of the base ; but the hoofs are 

 lividcd, and thus the foot altogether is different from 

 ;hat of the horse, and also of the camel, which has 

 he foot of a very different texture, and is not adapted 

 'or the same fleet motion as this animal. Some idea 

 of the form of the animal, and its altitude while 

 jrowsing the young branches of its favourite acacia, 

 and which it seizes by its prehensile tongue, may be 

 obtained by inspecting the plate GIRAFFE, where the 

 animal is very faithfully and forcibly represented in 

 two attitudes, and the artist has succeeded in delineat- 

 ing the mild expression of the animal as well as the form. 

 Many attempts have been made to trace resemblances, 

 or, as they are called, affinities, between the giraffe and 

 various other ruminating animals ; but it does not ap- 

 pear that any of them have been tolerably successful, for 

 while the likeness has been apparently made out in one 

 part, there has always been so palpable a contra- 

 diction in some other part, as to render the whole of 

 very little value. The characters of the genus, or 

 rather of the group, or sub-order, for though there is 

 but one known species, and we have no evidence that 

 there ever was more than this one, it requires this 

 distinction, are the head in both sexes furnished with 

 a species of horns, which consist of prominences of 

 the frontal bone, which rise parallel to each other to 

 the height of about six inches in the male, but rather 

 less in the female. They contain no true horn in 

 their substance, but are merely a cellular enlargement 

 of the bone, of nearly equal thickness throughout the 

 whole length, and with the upper extremity formed 

 like a sort of cushion, and beset with a sort of bristly 

 hairs. Those appendages to the head are of course 

 never shed, they are not at any time bare of 

 skin, nor does the animal use them for any known 

 purpose either of defence or in its more peace- 

 able economy. These curious horns, or rather ap- 

 pendages, for they contain no horn in substance, un- 

 less the stiff hairs on their extremities are to be con- 

 sidered as such, are not absolutely continuations of 

 the frontal bones, for in the young animal they are 

 united by a distinct suture ; and there is a third ^tu- 

 bercle of bone, much broader but not near so high 

 as the others, articulated on the middle of the frontal, 

 intermediate between them. The only known spe- 

 cies is, 



THE GIRAFFE (Camelopardalis girafa). This, when 

 full grown, is by much the tallest of animals if mea- 

 sured from the hoofs of the fore feet to the top of the 

 head. From fifteen to eighteen feet is mentioned as 

 being the height of the majority, though specimens 

 have been seen as high as twenty feet. A consider- 

 able portion of this height arises from the length of 

 the neck, though the shoulder is also high, much 

 higher in proportion than the rump. Some have said 

 that much of the apparent height of this part of the 

 body is owing to the great length of the spinous pro- 

 cesses of the scapular vertebrae ; but though these 

 processes upon the anterior part of the spine are 

 long, and thus afford firm points of insertion to the 

 muscles of the shoulder, yet the great height is in 



