THat the Zoo- 
logical Society 
has been more 
unfortunate with 
its giraffes than 
with any other 
specimens in its 
vast collection 
there is no doubt, 
and the losses 
sustained must 
have amounted to 
many thousands 
of pounds. All 
visitors will remember 
Giraffes. the fine male that 
died this spring. It 
suffered from a sort of neck dislo- 
cation, which was most probably 
zaused by the manner of its capture. 
These animals are mostly caught 
by the lassoo, and then are imme- 
diately taken to the nearest tree, 
tied up by the neck and allowed to - 
“kick themselves out” for twenty- 
four hours. Jf when their captors 
return they have not 
themselves or broken thew legs, 
they are at least tractable, and are 
then led down country. In 1866, 
the giraffe house caught fire, and 
two of the mmates succumbed 
to the flames, another one dying 
shortly afterwards from shock. 
THE NEW 
strangled - 
Zoo Notes 
GIRAFFES “SELIM” 
AND 
187 
All these misfor- 
tunes look like 
being altered 
now, for instead 
of the Society 
having to give 
nearly £1,000 
apiece for giraffes, 
thanks to the 
generosity of that 
gallant soldier 
Colonel Mahon, 
C.B.,D.S.0., who 
by relieving 
Mafeking gave London, or I should 
say Greater Britain, the oppor- 
tunity of celebrating the relief of 
General Baden-Powell’s world- 
renowned stand, has given to 
_London second cause for joy and 
delight, by presenting a pair of 
young (adult) giraffes from Kor- 
dofan to the Society. 
England can boast of being in 
possession of the only pair of 
giraffes (in captivity) in the world. 
Several single giraffes exist in 
other zoological collections, but like 
the female that now towers above 
the two-year-old filly and twenty 
months male housed beside her, 
they are “on the shelf,’ and until 
the advent of Colonel Mahon’s 
princely gift, 1t seemed as though 
“PATIMA,” 
