340 BACKBONED ANIMALS. 



broad, the horns small, tapering, and set far apart. Be- 

 tween the shoulders is a prominent hump which, with the 

 neck, head, and chest, is covered by long, shaggy hair, the 

 remainder of the fur being short and brownish in color. 

 They herd in vast numbers. Allied to them are the Eu- 

 ropean bison, or auroch* the Cape buffalo (. caffer) of 

 South Africa, the Indian buffalo (. bubalus), the yak, or 

 grunting ox a native of Thibet and the zebu of India. 

 VALUE. Every part of these animals has its value. 



Giraffes (Camelopardalidce], The giraffe is repre- 

 sented by a single species inhabiting the plains of Central 

 Africa. Its neck is of remarkable length, so that its head 

 is often eighteen feet from the ground ; the number of 

 vertebrae, however, is seven, as in other mammals, each 

 bone being lengthened out. The back slopes rapidly to 

 the tail, giving the impression that the fore-legs are the 

 longest, but they are of equal length. They have no horns, 

 but two long, solid appendages, attached partly to the 

 frontal and partly to the parietal bones ; these are covered 

 by the skin, and terminate in a tuft of bristles. In front 

 of them is a prominence caused by a thickening of the 

 bone that has been incorrectly described as a third horn. 

 The tongue is nearly seventeen inches long, and in its use 

 is not incomparable to the trunk of the elephant. 

 VALUE. Skins, and the bones are made into buttons. 



Camel (Camclidce). The camels have two incisor teeth 

 in the upper jaw, and six incisors below, canine teeth 

 in each jaw, and from eighteen to twenty molars. They 



* The extinct Bos primigenitis lived in Germany and England 

 during the time of Caesar, and is the ttrus of the Nibelungen song. 

 They are the ancestors of the half-wild cattle in English parks, and 

 the Holstein and Friesland breed. The European bison has only been 

 saved from extinction by the Emperors of Russia, who have preserved 

 eight hundred in the forests of Bialowicza, Lithuania, and have pre- 

 vented the descTuction of those running wild in the Caucasus. 



