60 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



profusely spotted and striped with white or yellow. 

 They have no horns, but instead, the males are provided 

 with large pig-like tusks in the upper jaw. They are 

 found throughout the forest region of Central Africa, 

 where they frequent the banks of streams, swimming 

 and diving freely in the water. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE GIRAFFE 



DR. JOHNSON'S definition of the giraffe as " an 

 Abyssinian animal, taller than the elephant, but not so 

 thick," requires considerable amplification at the present 

 day, when scientists have not only divided the genus 

 into two distinct species, but have classed the first 

 of these into no less than ten sub-species or varieties, 

 something after the manner adopted with the Burchell 

 zebra. The gradation of type is manifested in the 

 changing nature of the blotches on the skin, which vary 

 from an irregular network of light markings imposed on 

 a chestnut field in the northern or typical race, to the 

 deep chocolate patches on fawn-coloured background 

 characteristic of bulls of the Cape race. Again, while the 

 southern types are spotted on the lower parts of the legs, 

 this trait is entirely absent among northern animals. It 

 is therefore clear that the causes affecting coloration 

 have had a precisely opposite effect on the giraffe, from 

 north to south of the continent, to that which they have 

 exercised in the case of the Burchell zebra. That is to 

 say, the animal has evolved from a light-coloured beast 

 with white legs, and no very highly contrasted body 

 marks, into one highly specialized in the matter of 

 markings. 



