HISTORY OF THE CAMELEOPARD, 



35 





frequently mentioned in the Travels of Le Vaillant and 

 Burchell. The former, who was the first naturalist that 

 had an oportunity of closely examining the giraffe, gives a 

 full and accurate description of it in his Travels. 



"The giraffe chews the cud, as all horned animals with 

 cloven feet do. Like them, too, it crops the grass ; though 

 seldom, because pasture is scarce in the country which it 

 inhabits. Its ordinary food is the leaf of a sort of mimosa, 

 called by the natives kaneap, and by the planters Jcamel 

 doom. The tree being peculiar to that country, and grow- 

 ing only there, may be the reason why it takes up its abode 

 in it, and why it is not seen in those regions of the south of 

 Africa where the tree does not grow. This, however, is 

 but a vague conjecture, "and which the reports of the ancients 

 seem to contradict. 



"If I had never killed a giraffe, I should have thought, 

 with many other naturalists, that his hind legs were much 

 shorter than the fore ones. This is a mistake ; they bear 

 the same proportion to each other as is usual in quadrupeds. 

 I say the same proportion as is usual, because in this res- 

 pect there are variations, even in animals of the same 

 species. Every one knows, for instance, that mares are 

 lower before than stallions. What deceives us in the 

 giraffe, and occasions this apparent difference between the 

 legs, is the height of the withers, which may exceed that of 

 the crupper from sixteen to twenty inches, according to the 

 age of the animal ; and which, when it is seen at a distance 

 in motion, gives the appearance of much greater length to 

 the fore legs. 



"If the giraffe stand still, and you view it in the front, the 

 effect is very different. As the fore part of its body is 

 much larger than the hind pnrt, it completly conceals the 

 latter. 



"Its gait when it walks is neither awkward nor unpleas- 

 ing; but it is ridiculous enough when it trots; for you would 



