MAMMALS. 639 



Civilization has driven the wapati from all the eastern states, and now 

 this large deer is only found west of the Mississippi and in the British 

 possessions. It is much like the red deer, which is so carefully preserved 

 in the forests of Europe for game, and like it may occasionally turn the 

 tables on the hunter, and charge with its sharp, branching antlers. 



Allied to these is the giraffe, with its long neck, spindle legs, protuber- 

 ant eyes, and curious horns, the whole making a strange figure, capable 

 of browsing on the leaves and branches of trees, eighteen or twenty feet 

 above the ground. There is but a single species of giraffe, and this is dis- 

 tributed over tropical Africa, from Abyssinia south to the Orange and 

 Zambesi rivers. It frequents, as a rule, shrubbery not so high as itself, so 

 that while it can readily browse on the tops it can keep a lookout in every 

 direction for any approaching danger. When alarmed, the giraffe runs 

 awkwardly, the legs of the same side moving simultaneously, and not 

 alternately, like those of a horse, and its long neck, stretched forward, 

 swaying from side to side. Although this gait seems extremely clumsy, it 

 is very rapid, and it requires a good horse to keep up with a giraffe. The 

 long neck requires a word. In the birds, length of neck usually means an 

 increase hi the number of bones or vertebra) in that region ; not so in 

 mammals. Here, with but two or three exceptions, the number of neck- 

 bones is constant. In only one animal does the number exceed seven (in 

 the three-toed sloth), and in the long-necked giraffe and the almost neck- 

 less whales the number is exactly the same, the difference in length being 

 accomplished by an elongation or shortening of the bones. 



Between our domesticated cattle on the one hand, and the sheep on the 

 other, occurs a long series of forms differing considerably in appearance, 

 and yet so intergracling that the naturalist has great difficulty in separat- 

 ing them in a perfectly satisfactory manner. Other questions also arise 

 besides this one of classification, and which are no less difficult of solution. 

 Among these is the question of the origin of our cattle ; for it is beyond a 

 doubt that it came from some originally wild form. The remains show 

 that originally there were four distinct or easily separable forms of oxen 

 in Europe, the last of which became extinct about two centuries and a half 

 ago, and the probability is that more than one of these was concerned in 

 the origin of the cattle of our fields and barnyards, but that crossing of 

 breeds and artificial selection has produced the great variety of forms 

 recognized by our farmers and stockmen. 



Besides these four species there are many other wild forms of cattle, 

 which can have had nothing to do with our tame stock, although some of 

 them have been domesticated. To the American, the bison, or buffalo, of 

 our country is the most prominent of these. In former times the buffalo 



