THE HOOFED MAMMALS. 



The Giraffe. 

 Family 



GiraffidcR. 



ally when the animal has fattened upon Indian corn. For grace and contour 

 of outline they are incomparable. Their horns have a most peculiar and 

 graceful outline, receding at first backwards from the burr, then coming for- 

 ward with a bold sweep It is extremely timorous and wary, bub if wounded 

 and unable to escape it will fight gallantly for its life. In such encounters 

 its horns are not, in my experience, so much to be dreaded as its fore-feet." 

 Finally, the two pudu-deer (Pudua) of the Chilian Andes and Ecuador, al- 

 though nearly related to the brockets, differ sufficiently to form a genus by 

 themselves. In size they scarcely exceed a hare ; and they have a pair of 

 very minute simple antlers rising from the middle of the forehead, while they 

 exhibit certain peculiarities in the structure of the skull and ankle-joint. 



The African giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis\ which is the sole existing re- 

 presentative of its g^nus and family, enjoys the proud distinction of being 

 the tallest of all Mammals, and is easily recognised by its 

 extremely elongated neck and limbs, as well as by its dappled 

 coloration. In many respects intermediate between the 

 deer and the hollow-horned Ruminants, although more nearly 

 allied to the former than to the latter, it is chiefly entitled 

 to form a family by itself on account of the peculiar structure of the append- 

 ages on the skull, which, properly speaking, come under the designation neither 

 of antlers nor horns. Between the large ears are a pair of short horns, as they 

 may be called, which are completely covered 

 with skin, and are formed of bones, which in 

 the young state can be easily detached from the 

 skull. Lower down on the forehead is a single 

 median dome-like bone, which is likewise de- 

 tachable in the young. In general conforma- 

 tion the skull of the giraffe is very like that 

 of the deer ; but the cheek teeth have very 

 short crowns, and a peculiarly rugose enamel. 

 There are no upper tusks ; the lateral hoofs 

 are totally wanting in both limbs ; the tail is 

 long and tufted at the end ; and there is 

 generally no gall-bladder to the liver. In 

 colour, the South African giraffe differs from 

 the North African variety by the darker tint 

 and larger size of the chestnut blotches, and 

 the narrower buff lines by which they are 

 divided. The giraffe, however, has attained 

 its towering stature without any important de- 

 parture from the general structure characteris- 

 ing its nearest allies, and thus preserves all the 

 essential features of an ordinary quadruped. 

 It owes its height mainly to the enormous 

 elongation of two of the bones of the legs, 

 coupled with a corresponding lengthening of 

 the vertebrae of the neck. As in all its kin- 

 dred, the lower segment of each leg of this 

 animal forms a cannon-bone, the nature of 

 which has been explained above, and in the fore-limb it is the bone 

 below the wrist (commonly termed the knee), and the radius above the 

 latter, which have undergone an elongation so extraordinary as to make 



Fig. 82.- THK GIRAFFE. 



