CHAPTER XIX 



T11E GIRAFFE (CAMSLOPARDALIS, L.) 



Tins beautiful and harmless creature is the tallest of the animal 

 creation. The bull, when standing erect, will measure 19 feet 

 from the crown of the head to the ground in a perpendicular line. 

 The horns are short, and resemble those of the deer when not fully 

 developed, as they are covered with a hairy skin, although hard ; 

 these are never shed, but are firmly fixed upon the skull. The 

 giraffe has a long prehensile tongue, which enables it to lay hold 

 of twigs or small succulent shoots, upon which it feeds. 



The peculiar length of the fore legs makes it difficult for this 

 animal to graze from the surface of the earth ; the elongated neck 

 and prodigious height prove that its natural food is far above the 

 ground ; and although it occasionally will eat ordinary herbage, its 

 delight is to feed upon the delicate twigs of the flat-topped mimosas 

 and several other varieties of shrubs. 



The pace of the giraffe is peculiar ; it moves like a camel, both 

 legs upon the same side simultaneously. The long neck swings 

 ungracefully when the animal is in rapid motion, and the clumsy 

 half -canter produces the appearance of lameness. Although 

 inelegant when in action, it is capable of considerable speed, that 

 will test the endurance of the best horses that can be obtained in 

 such countries as it inhabits. 



It may be readily imagined that, owing to the great height of 

 this animal, it can be distinguished from a distance, and does not 

 require an elaborate search, nevertheless it is exceedingly deceptive 

 in appearance when found among its native forests. 



The red-barked mimosa, which is its favourite food, seldom 

 grows higher than 14 or 15 feet. Many woods are almost entirely 

 composed of these trees, upon the flat heads of which the giraffe 

 can feed when looking downwards. I have frequently been 

 mistaken when remarking some particular dead tree-stem at a 



