November 2, 1896.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



241 



^l£N€EJiTERATllJ 



LONDON : NOVEMBER 2, 1896. 



CONTENTS. 



^ PAGE 



The Giraffe at the Zoo. Ev Feank E. Beddahd, F.B S. 



{Flale) ' 241 



Parasitic Leaf-Fungi. Bv Rev. Alex. S. Wir.sox, M.A., 



B.Sc. (lUiisfrafed) ...' 242 



Day-Flying Moths. By L. y. Badexoch. (Illiistra/ed)... 244 

 The Spectroscopy of Argon. Bv T. L. Ai.gek, LL.D., 



Ph.D ' 246 



Alkali-Making by Electricity. By C. F. Tuw n->rxd, F.C .-*. 247 



Observations de I Eclipse Totale du Soleil du 16 Avril, 



1893 ,.. 249 



A Very Extended Stream of Sunspots. (Plate) ... 250 

 Letters :—. J. M. WADJtORE; Walteh Williams; Lawrence 



B. Tatpsnuen (Illu.itraied) ... ... 2.30 



Notices of Books 251 



Bird Migration in Great Britain and Ireland. — Beport 



of the Committee of the British Association. By Habkt 



F. WiTHEKBY ... ... ... 254 



Forecasting by Curves. Bv AiEX. B. JIaoDowali,, MA. 



(niu.<ct rated) ' 2.i6 



Some Curious Facts in Plant Distribution. --V. By 



W. BoTTiNO Hemsi.ev, F.R S .'. 2.57 



The Leaf-Cutting Bee. Bv Fraxci.s M. Duxc.^y. 



(Illusti-atcd) '. 259 



Waves.— XI. The Sea of Ether. By Yauohajt Coexish, 



M.Sc ." 259 



The Liverpool Meeting of the British Association ... 261 

 The Face of the Sky for November. Bv Herbeet 



Sadlkr, F.R.A.S " 263 



Chess Column. By C. D. LococK, B.A.Oxon 263 



THE GIRAFFE AT THE ZOO. 



By Frank E. Beddard, F.R.S. 



THE plate illustrating this paper represents the 

 young female giraffe which has recently become 

 an inmate of the Zoological Gardens. Some years 

 ago giraffes were among the most commonplace 

 animals exhibited in that institution ; they might 

 almost have been said to be indigenous there, for they bred 

 successfully and led a perfectly natural life. But about 

 six years ago the last representative of the old state of 

 affairs died, through sheer age, and in the meantime 

 circumstances were conspiring to prevent the recruiting of 

 the collection ; hence for some years an hintux raUt,- 

 drjhnilutt. The conspiring circumstances appear to have 

 been mainly a man and a fly. The man was the Mahdi, 

 and the general turmoil in the Soudan and thereabouts 

 due to his activity ; the fly is the well-known tsetse. This 

 latter animal is no more fatal to the giraffe than was 

 the Mahdi, in itself ; but giraffes were hunted upon horse- 

 back, and it is of the horse that the tsetse is so determined 

 a foe. It is clear, therefore, that the young beast at the 

 Gardens is a highly valuable acquisition, and it is to be 

 regretted that so far no companion has been procured for 

 her. It is, unfortunately, not only at the Zoological 

 Gardens that the giraffe is getting near to extinction. 



Like most of the large game of Africa, the giraffe's days 

 are probably numbered. The advance of civilization, so 

 gratifying to the philanthropist and the trader, is a matter 

 of abhorrence to the naturalist. We have seen in the last 

 few years the practical disappearance of the quagga, the next 

 to disappearance of the white rhinoceros ; and all these great 

 beasts are now retiring further and further away from 

 contact with colonists, the retirement being naturally 

 accompanied by diminished numbers. Yet the giraffe is 

 stated to be well equipped for the battle of life by those who 

 have studied it in Africa. To us it seems a somewhat un- 

 gainly beast, withan unnecessary length of neckand forelimb. 

 The ungainliness is, perhaps, tempered by the beautifully 

 conspicuous spots, which are especially sharply marked 

 out in the animal at the Gardens, the representative, as it 

 is, of a variety of the more abundant, or, at any rate, the 

 more usual form. Unlike the stag in the fable, the gu-affe 

 can trust to its beauty spots as much as to what might be 

 considered the more useful features of its organization. 

 Like the individual who was unable to see the wood for its 

 trees, an eminent observer is stated to have been quite 

 near to a giraffe and unable to detect it on account of its 

 spots ; the dappled appearance due to these suggesting a 

 broken stream of sunlight falling upon a withered tree 

 trunk, the tree trunk being clearly the animal's stout neck. 

 A recent traveller in Africa, Mr. Scott Elliot, makes an 

 ingenious suggestion about the giraffe's neck which we 

 have not seen put forward elsewhere. It is commonly 

 held that this disproportionate part of the body is important 

 to the creature as a natural ladder whereby to reach the 

 tender twigs of a tree inaccessible to the common herd of 

 bush-living ruminants ; but Mr. Elliot points out with 

 some acuteness that in the grass-covered plains of eastern 

 tropical Africa, with scattered trees, there are other beasts 

 with long necks which do not depend upon the trees for 

 their nourishment ; there is, for instance, the ostrich, 

 longest necked of birds. By means of this long neck the 

 giraffe can take a wide survey of his environment, and 

 perhaps detect a lion or pard with prying head in time to 

 retire with success — " what time she lifteth herself up on 

 high and scorneth the horse and his rider." The giraffe, 

 in fact, is fairly fleet, though its progress is not elegant, 

 having, indeed, been compared to that of a frog. The 

 neck, which was so inconvenient a feature in conveying 

 the animal to the Zoological Gardens, is apparently, so 

 far as giraffes are concerned, quite a recent acquisition. 

 It is true that extinct forms of giraffe, differing only specifi- 

 cally from the animal which we are considering, formerly 

 existed in .\sia, and even in Europe, so that the diminution 

 of giraffes is not a thing of yesterday ; but the earlier 

 creatures which have been referred to this group of hoofed 

 animals had comparatively short necks. The Sainothiiium 

 and HilliKlotlu'iiiiiii, whose habitats are recorded in their 

 names, were giraffes to all intents and purposes, but with 

 necks on the plan of the ordinary I'ngulate. It may be 

 that in this lengthening of neck we can trace the gradual 

 change from a browsing, plain-living animal to the present 

 bush-frequenting camelopard. 



In its present situation the giraffe cannot exercise its 

 capacity for plucking by the help of its long extensile 

 tongue the twigs of the few trees that are scattered through 

 its enclosure, its predecessors having done what could be 

 done in this direction ; but the customary method of 

 feeding is kept up by means of a very high manger. 



We have seen the important place that the giraffe 

 occupies in the Zoological (iardens, which is emphasized 

 by its tenancy of an entire house to itself : what is its 

 place in nature ? Curious though it may seem, it is not 

 far off in the scale of nature from its near neighbour the 



