THE GIRAFFE. 475 



stuffed male, brought over by Mr. Burchell), measures seventeen 

 feet six inches j and the others do not exceed sixteen feet. The 

 neck, trunk, thighs, and part of the fore-legs, are marked with 

 large angular spots of a reddish or clear yellow hue, upon a 

 dull white ground ; the belly, inside of the thighs, and extre- 

 mities of the legs, are faded white ; a mane of very stiff short 

 yellow hairs extends from the back of the head to the withers; 

 the hoofs are black, well divided, and neatly set on ; the tail 

 extends below the hocks, and is terminated by a long tuft of 

 coarse hairs ; the ears are yellowish, and well constructed for 

 the reception of sounds ; and the eyes are large, brilliant, and 

 so prominent that the animal can see the surrounding objects 

 without turning the head, and hence the difficulty of approaching 

 near to it in the wild state. Both sexes have the head surmounted 

 by two solid horns (if they must be called so, though they have 

 neither the use nor structure of real horns), entirely invested by 

 an elongation of the skin of the head, and terminated by a tuft 

 or brush of long hairs. In the female at the Jardin des Plantes, 

 the horns are seven inches long; eleven inches round at the 

 base, and four at the middle, and at the end. In front of these 

 horns is another horn-like protuberance, having precisely the 

 same structure, and differing from them only in form and 

 relative size, being less in height, but wider at the base, and it 

 is also enveloped with the skin of the animal. The neck of the 

 giraffe, although very long, contains but seven vertebrae, the 

 same number as in man, but from their form and mode of 

 articulation, they enable the neck to assume a variety of atti- 

 tudes, as freely and as gracefully as that of the swan. The 

 height of its withers may, according to its age, exceed the 

 height of the rump by sixteen or twenty inches j and this 

 circumstance gives it the appearance of having the front-legs 

 longer than the hind-legs, and so well does the slanted plane 

 of the back deceive the beholder with this impression of a 

 disproportion between their length, that I have known persons 

 stand before not only the living animal but the skeleton, and 

 assert the existence of this disparity, until they were convinced 



