478 THE GIRAFFE. 



quenched by the moisture it expresses from the highly succulent 

 leaves of the acacia ; and if it ever has occasion to drink, we may 

 infer that it wades into the water so as to bring the surface 

 within reach of the mouth. 



The giraffe, when compelled to defend itself, kicks like a 

 horse, but with more force and rapidity. It never employs 

 its horns in defence ; but those in the Regent's Park will 

 sometimes strike each other a heavy blow by swinging the 

 head with great impetus against some particular part of the 

 body where the one appears to have discovered that the other 

 is the most tender. In such cases, the keeper interferes with 

 a whip. Ordinarily, however, giraffes are of a mild and social 

 nature. M. Thibaut says, that he observed one of the specimens 

 just mentioned, shed tears when it no longer saw its companions 

 and its attendants. A giraffe, which Mr. Gordon wounded 

 when in Africa, permitted him to approach it as it lay on the 

 ground, and even to stroke it over the eyes several times, when 

 it only closed them, and made no effort for revenge being as 

 forgiving as the lamb 



" That licks the hand uprais'd to shed its blood." 



The female goes with young about twelve months, and has 

 one, perhaps two occasionally, at a birth. The young one 

 grows rapidly, and sucks for several months. One was born 

 in the Regent's Park in June 1839, but it only lived nine days, 

 and is now preserved in the giraffe house.* 



The Arabs hunt giraffes for the sake of the flesh (which M. 

 Thibaut says is excellent eating), and for the skin, of which 

 they make bucklers and sandels. La Vaillant saw a hut of 

 one of the Great Namaquas entirely covered with the skin of 

 a giraffe, and it was this observation that proved to him the 

 existence of an animal which the moderns had begun to regard 

 as fabulous, and it was this that induced him to go in quest 

 of it, and make the re- disco very of this majestic creature. 



* It is generally agreed that the giraffe utters no sound whatever, yet in 

 the newspaper reports of the birth of the young one above referred to, it was 

 stated to have uttered a bleating. If it made any noise it was probably in- 

 voluntarily, and caused by the act of respiration. 



