THE GIRAFFE 339 



has two horns, but in the northern species there is usually 

 a third horn in the centre of the forehead. These bony 

 processes are unlike the horns of any other animal, being 

 mere knobs or protuberances that might well be the bases 

 from which true horns might be expected to spring. Neither 

 velvet nor hollow horns ever appear upon them, but a tuft 

 of black hair adorns their tips. 



Notwithstanding the great length of the neck, it consists 

 of but seven vertebrae, in which it agrees with what is 

 practically a law among mammals. It naturally follows 

 that each vertebra is very long, which makes the neck 

 not nearly so flexible as its tapering shape would suggest. 

 Its length allows the animal to browse on the leaves of 

 trees, especially the acacia, which it prefers before all 

 others. To match the mobile upper lip the tongue is ex- 

 ceedingly long, slender, and flexible, so that the animal 

 can twist it round the leaves, and thus draw them into 

 its mouth. 



This structure of the tongue can be seen to advantage by 

 placing a lump of sugar on the ground before a Giraffe. 

 The creature cannot bend its neck, but can only stoop 

 it from the shoulders in a straight line. By dint of much 

 straddling with the legs it gets its nose near the ground, and 

 then, by protruding the tongue and coiling its tip round 

 the sugar, it succeeds in gaining the coveted dainty. In 

 the arid regions which it inhabits the Giraffe will find no 

 opportunity of touching water for several months at a time, 

 and hence the opinion of Bushmen and earlier travellers 

 that the animal never drinks at all. Upon this point Mr. 

 Selous may be quoted. He states that upon one occasion, 

 a little before sundown, he was 'just in time to see three 

 tall, graceful Giraffes issue from the forest a little distance 

 beyond on their way down to the water. It is a curious 

 sight to watch these long-legged animals drinking. Though 

 their necks are long, they are not sufficiently so to enable 

 them to reach the water without straddling their legs wide 

 apart, this position having to be assumed, not only when 

 drinking, but likewise when the animal desires to pick up 

 a leaf from the ground, or on the rare occasions when it 

 grazes' (Plate XXXV. Fig. i). 



