CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 191 



and incomparably the most graceful of all big 

 game. The height of the giraffe always as- 

 tonishes those who see it for the first time, and 

 I always remember the amusing fascination 

 which one at the Zoo had for some Moors 

 whom I once showed round the Gardens, for 

 although natives of the same continent, they 

 had never even suspected the existence of a 

 creature half again as tall as the biggest 

 elephant, or eighteen feet from the ground to 

 the tips of its make-believe horns. The giraffe 

 is, in fact, one of those animals that could 

 never be mistaken for any other, with its brown- 

 splotched skin covering the little imitation 

 horns, the long face and melting eyes, the 

 black tongue, slender legs, and insignificant 

 tail. It is with wild animals as with human 

 beings. Some are full of character, while 

 others are just negative, and on the whole 

 the latter have the happiest time of it. 



The large eyes of the giraffe, like those of 

 some fishes which inhabit the abysmal gloom 

 of the deep sea, suggest keen eyesight, and 

 may be contrasted with the large and erect 

 ears of the little fennec which dwells in the 

 same region. Keen eyesight would be useless 

 to so short an animal as the fennec, and, on 

 the other hand, a creature with its nose so far 

 from the ground as the giraffe has little use 

 for highly developed powers of scent, though 



