234 Animal Life 
peculiar to this 
species of the 
Felidse ; indeed, 
J have only 
come across 
anything at all 
lke it in one 
or two smaller 
camivores. It 
their coats, and 
besides these 
they frequently 
show small 
whorls, feather- 
ings and crests 
between the 
bases of the 
external ears 
is, however, 
represented 
frequently in 
Bovide. In the lon this reversal of the 
hair-streams of the back must bear a direct 
relation to the habit, so constantly exercised 
by this fierce creature, of bristlmg up the 
hair of its back. One may see the same 
feature displayed im a temporary manner 
by a domestic dog in a pugnacious mood 
when ruffling up its hair on its neck 
and back, so that a picture of the larger 
process in the lion is easily observed. It 
is no exaggeration to say that these 
“crests,” as we may term them, of certain 
old families in the lower animal world 
describe more truly the tendencies of the 
race than most of the crests and mottoes 
of ancient human families. 
Oryx Beisa (Fig. 6).— This 
antelope also shows one very 
interesting register of frequent 
activity. Lookmg at the back of 
the animal from above, one may 
see at the level of the sacrum a 
whorl from which a long feather- 
ing proceeds forwards, right 
against the adjoimme streams of 
the trunk, up to the level of the 
horns, where it terminates in a 
crest, thus meeting the normal 
backward stream of the neck. 
This, hike the corresponding area 
in the lion, may also be associ- 
ated with the constantly-repeated 
action of the fly-shaker muscle, 
indicating some of the annoy- 
ances to which the animal is 
subject, and which it thus some- 
what mitigates. 
Most Giraffes (Figs. 7 and 8) 
, 
HSIN 47 
YMM ILL ame 
Ny 
possess two interesting marks on Fig. 6. ORYX BEISA. 
and the horns. 
The two points 
alluded to are, 
first, a bilateral whorl, feathering and crest, 
situated in most giraffes at a point which 
observation shows to be a critical one in 
the movements of the great neck, and 
which would be shown to be “critical” in 
some way or other by the presence of this 
whorl, even if observation did not bear it 
out. This is the level of the seventh 
cervical vertebra, where the neck shows a 
preponderance of the movements of flexion, 
extension, and lateral bending and rotation. 
The second point of interest is that im the 
mane, near to the level of the withers, 
there is a meeting of two streams, the 
normal backward slope of the mane meeting 
at an angle a forward slope of the posterior 
portion. One has only to see 
the attitudes assumed by a 
eiraffe in the act of drmking or 
browsing off the ground to learn 
how this forward turn of the 
hair of the mane is produced. 
The study of reversed areas 
of hair and whorls, featherings 
and crests, as evidence of passive 
habits of animals on the one 
hand, and of active habits on 
the other, may be pursued much 
further than has been done 
here. One finds that not only 
the presence of these phenomena, 
but their persistence and size, 
gives very good approximate 
knowledge of the habits of a 
certain family, and even of 
different breeds of domesticated 
animals. 
It may be useful to point 
out the nature of the matenal 
