xi GIRAFFES VOICELESS 211 



much hunting, I believe never quenched their thirst 

 twice running in the same river ; and as giraffes would 

 not require to drink nearly as frequently as elephants, 

 they would be able to range over far more exten- 

 sive areas of country than those animals, drinking 

 at intervals at points far distant one from another, 

 and between which there was absolutely no surface 

 water. I cannot help thinking that the idea that 

 giraffes can go for months together without drinking, 

 in countries where there is but a small percentage 

 of fluid in the food they eat, and in which the heat 

 and dryness of the atmosphere are so intense that 

 one's nails become as brittle as glass and the hairs 

 of one's beard are constantly splitting, must be a 

 mistaken one. It is, however, only right to say 

 that many very experienced African hunters hold 

 the view that giraffes are quite independent of 

 water, and that they can and do exist for months 

 at a time without drinking. 



Giraffes certainly show no aversion to water, as 

 I have frequently seen them drinking, and watched 

 them as they gradually straddled their forelegs wide 

 apart, by a series of little jerks, until they at length 

 got their mouths down to the surface of the pool. 



Many herbivorous animals are, as a rule, very 

 silent, but all antelopes are capable of making, and 

 do occasionally make, certain vocal sounds. But 

 the giraffe appears to be absolutely voiceless. At 

 any rate, I have never heard one make any kind of 

 noise, and that was the experience of my friend the 

 late Mr. A. H. Neumann; whilst Mr. H. A. Bryden, 

 as well as other men who have hunted these 

 animals, have put the same fact on record. 



Although giraffes often feed through dense 

 thickets of wait-a-bit thorns on their way from one 

 part of a country to another, they are more partial, 

 I think, to open park-like surroundings than to thick 

 forest. In portions of Khama's country both near 



