172 Till- MAMMALIA. 



Like the lions and gazelles, the giraffes of 

 Africa are probably immigrants from the South of 

 Europe. Among the Mammalia buried at Pikermi 

 is a species, CttmclnjHirdalis aitim, almost the same 

 size as the African variety. Unfortunately its skull 

 is not known. The disproportion between the 

 hind and fore limbs seems to have been even 

 greater in the fossil species. Further traces lead 

 us to the Siwalik hills in India. Numerous re- 

 mains have enabled Gaudry to restore the com- 

 plete skeleton of a genus closely allied to the 

 giraffe the HeUadotherwm which lived in herds 

 in Miocene Attica, and owing to their great size 

 must have been characteristic figures in the land- 

 scape of the primeval world. 



It was customary to class with the above the 

 colossal Indian Sirntlicr'uun, which possessed a pair 

 of simple horns in front, and a second branched 

 pair. And yet our conjectures with regard to its 

 affinity with the Giraffe are uncertain, and Riiti- 

 meyer thinks that the Sinithcrinm points as much 

 to the Antelopes, as the Giraffes to the Deer. Our 

 knowledge of two other Indian species, the Bra in a - 

 tlH'riuiH and Hydaspiiherium, is as yet so fragmen- 

 tary that it is wiser not to make any conjecture 

 as to their relationship. 



