334 



UNGULATES. 



they are not sufficiently so to enable them to reach the water without straddling 

 their legs wide apart. In doing this, they sometimes place one foot in front, 

 and the other as far back as possible, and then by a series of little jerks widen the 

 distance between the two, until they succeed in getting their mouths down to the 

 water ; sometimes they sprawl their legs out sideways in a similar manner." A 

 giraffe in the latter posture is depicted on the right side of the Plate ; this position 

 having to be assumed, not only when drinking, but likewise when the animal desires 

 to pick up a leaf from the ground, or on the rare occasions when it grazes. 



Writing at a time when giraffes were still abundant in South Africa, Gordon 



Cumming gives the following 

 graphic account of their habits and 

 appearance. He says that, " in 

 countries unmolested by the in- 

 trusive foot of man, the giraffe is 

 found generally in herds varying 

 from twelve to sixteen ; but I 

 have not unfrequently met with 

 thirty, and on one occasion I 

 counted forty individuals together ; 

 this, however, was a chance, and 

 sixteen may be reckoned as the 

 average number of a herd. These 

 herds are composed of giraffes of 

 various sizes, from the young one of 

 9 or 10 feet in height to the dark 

 chestnut-coloured old bull of the 

 herd, whose exalted head towers 

 above his companions, generally 

 attaining a height of upwards of 

 18 feet. The females are of lower 

 stature, and more delicately formed 

 than the males, their height av- 

 eraging from 16 to 17 feet. 

 Some writers have discovered 

 ugliness and a want of grace in 

 the giraffe, but I consider that 

 he is one of the most strikingly 

 beautiful animals in the creation ; 

 and when a herd is seen scattered 

 through a grove of the picturesque 

 parasol-topped acacias which adorn 

 their native plains, and on whose uppermost shoots they are enabled to browse 

 through the colossal height with which nature has so admirably endowed them, he 

 must indeed be slow of conception who fails to discover both grace and dignity in 

 all their movements." Referring to the admirable protective resemblance of many 

 animals to their natural surroundings, the same author goes on to observe that " in 



SOUTH AFRICAN GIRAFFE. 



