Local Variation in the Giraffe 81 
pale-coloured, in some parts of the body and on the limbs being nearly white. A special 
feature is a row of five large spots, of which the first is partially divided, extending from 
just below the point of the shoulder in a curved line to the middle of the back. On the 
outer side of the fore-limb the spots extend well down to the knee, and in the hind-limb 
a considerable distance down the cannon-bone. The under-parts are comparatively free 
from spots, as is- the inner surface of the upper segment of both limbs. 
In the female (Fig. 2) the spots are smaller and*more numerous, this being 
especially noticeable on the hind-quarters and the upper part of the fore-legs. Correlated 
with this is the greater width of the light interspaces, which are nearly white on the 
greater part of the body. Faint spotting occurs on the belly and the fore part of 
the inner surface of the front legs. The position in which the cow is drawn shows 
that, while the side of the face is fully spotted, the front of the face (as in the bull) 
is uniformly reddish-fawn. As a whole, the female may be described as a more 
decidedly spotted animal than her consort. 
I believe that even old bulls of the Nubian giraffe never have the deep chocolate 
spots of old males of the eastern and southern races. 
I now come to the bull and cow from Kordofan in the Zoological Society’s 
Menagerie, which were considerably younger than the two larger Woburn specimens at 
the time the sketches were made. The bull is shown in Fig. 3. Compared with the 
Woburn bull, it will be seen that the Kordofan male differs by the dark areas on the 
neck and body being decidedly smaller, more numerous, and more irregular in shape, 
while the light interspaces, more especially on the neck, are wider and darker. The 
difference in the number and size of the spots is well shown by taking those 
corresponding to the line of five in the Woburn bull between the point of the shoulder 
and the middle of the back. Of these only two near the middle of the series are at 
all comparable in size and form to those of the latter, those on either side being 
smaller, more numerous, and more irregular. There are, in fact, seven or eight spots 
in this line. In the neck there are a number of quite small spots between the larger 
ones, of which there is no trace in either of the Woburn specimens. 
A further difference is to be found in the presence of a triangular area immediately 
below the ear of which the ground-colour is pure white. The spotting on the side of 
the face is also less abundant in the Kordofan animal. A more important difference 
from the Woburn bull is to be found in the circumstance that in the fore-limb from 
just above the line of the abdomen, and also on the hind-lmb half way up the 
thigh, the spots suddenly break up into a numerous series of very small and irregular 
spots, similar irregular spots also occurring all over the abdomen and on the inner 
surface of both pairs of limbs. In the hind-leg the spots extend only a very short 
distance below the knee. Although, as already mentioned, the cow of the Woburn 
pair has smaller spots than the bull, there is none of that sudden transition from 
comparatively large to very small spots on the limbs so noticeable in the Kordofan 
bull, from which the Woburn cow further differs by the almost complete absence of 
spotting on the belly and the imner side of the hind-limbs. 
The foregoing points of distinction between the Woburn and the Zoological Society’s 
bulls (which, as being both immature, are strictly comparable) indicate that they are 
almost certainly referable to distinct races. 
As regards the name to be applied to the giraffe of Kordofan, I have already 
mentioned that the specimen from that district figured by Sir William Jardine in the 
volume of the “Naturalist’s Library’’ cited above is entitled to be regarded as the 
type of the so-called Camelopardalis antiquorum. If the plate of that specimen (which 
is an adult bull) be compared with the figure of the younger bull in the Zoological 
Gardens, it will be apparent that the two agree precisely in the very remarkable feature 
