DEER. 47 



Ruminants in which the horns are bifurcated, and are shed and 

 renewed annually, the horny sheath slipping off its bony core, and 

 being replaced by a fresh horny growth, a process wholly unlike 

 anything found either in the Antelopes or Deer. In its habits it 

 resembles the Antelopes, and is found in the open prairies of 

 North America. 



The Giraffida, containing only the Giraffe (Giraffa camelopar- 

 dalis), of which a stuffed specimen 17 ft. 4 in. in height, and a 

 skeleton are placed in the centre of the Saloon* Its true horns are 

 two in number, small, solid, persistent, and covered with hair, but it 

 has besides a bony protuberance on the middle of the face, which 

 increases with age, and in old animals appears as a third horn; it 

 has only two toes on each foot, the outer ones being entirely absent. 

 At the present time Giraffes are being driven further and further 

 back into the centre of Africa, over the whole of which they used to 

 range, like the other large animals of that continent, and it is feared 

 that before very long the species will be entirely exterminated. 

 Giraffes browse partly on ground vegetation, partly on the leaves of 

 trees, their great height and long extensile tongues enabling them 

 to strip branches which are far out of the reach of other animals. 



The Cervidce, or Deer family, consists of a very large number of 

 genera and species inhabiting Europe, Asia, and America, but is, 

 except for one species found in Barbary, entirely unrepresented 

 in Africa. They are distinguished from the other Ruminants by 

 their antlers, which in the majority of the species are present in 

 the males only. Antlers are bony outgrowths of the frontal part 

 of the skull, annually shed and renewed, without any horny sheath 

 over them, but during growth covered with a sensitive hairy skin 

 provided with blood-vessels, the so-called " velvet.-" When they 

 have reached their full size, the blood-vessels become aborted at the 

 "buny" close to the skull, and the "velvet" dries up and is 

 rubbed off; the antlers, then bare and non-sensitive, are ready 

 for their sole function fighting. The time of the growth of 

 the antlers precedes the pairing-season ; after this is over, by a 

 process of absorption near the base, they become detached from 

 the skull, and are "shed.-" A more or less elongated portion or 

 " pedicle " always remains on the skull, from the summit of which 

 the new antler grows next year. The antlers increase in strength 

 and complexity with the age of the animal, from the simple upright 



