Habits of the Giraffe 207 



top of its horns to the bottom of its hoofs ; and this 

 is not the maximum, male giraffes having been killed 

 in South Africa measuring 18 feet and 18 feet 11 

 inches. 1 



I should have liked to preserve this magnificent 

 beast for our museum, but it was practically 

 impossible to dry a skin of this thickness and size 

 during the rainy season ; besides, transporting it 

 would have been no small matter, judging from the 

 fact that, while even the skin of an eland weighs more 

 than sixty pounds, a giraffe's skin exceeds one hundred 

 pounds. What losses to science occurred during 

 this expedition owing to lack of means of transport ! 

 Many elephants and other large animals were killed 

 whose skins or skeletons would have been invaluable for 

 our museums. 



On other occasions I wounded two giraffes, but I 

 was never able to overtake them. When one recol- 

 lects that hunters in South Africa, even on horse- 

 back, and pushing their steeds to the top of their 

 speed, do not always overtake these animals, one 

 can easily understand the chance I had on foot. I 

 consider having killed one as very satisfactory. 



During these two or three weeks we study the 

 habits of the giraffe, and I find out that it inhabits, 

 preferably, flat countries where, lacking acacia 

 giraff'ae, which is its favourite food south of the 

 Zambesi and is little met with in the Barotse 



1 Females are, according to their age, rather lighter in colour, 

 but I have never seen any which were the colour of those in our 

 menageries. 



