1898.] OJf A NEW SUBSPECIES OF GIRAFFE FROM NIGERIA. 39 



February 1, 1898. 

 Dr. Si. George Mitart, F.E.S., V.P., in the Chair, 



Mr. Oldfield Thomas exhibited the skull of a Giraffe from West 

 Africa, which, with its anterior cannon-bones, had been presented 

 to the British Museum by Mr. W. Hume McCorquodale. The 

 animal had been shot by that gentleman's brother, the late Lieut. 

 Eobert Hume McCorquodale, of the 3rd Dragoon Guards, to the 

 south-east of the junction of the Benue and Niger, and came 

 therefore from a district whence Giraffes had never hitherto been 

 recorded. So far as could now be ascertained by the kind 

 assistance of Sir G. Taubman Goldie, its locality was approximately 

 8° E., and 7° N., and therefore very far from any part of the known 

 range of the genus. The nearest recorded locality seemed to be 

 Lake Tchad, some 600 miles distant, whence Denham and 

 Clapperton had obtained a young specimen formerly exhibited in 

 the British Museum. 



In determining the affinities of this skull, Mr. Thomas had been 

 much aided by the clear diseutauglement of the characters and 

 synonymies of the Northern and Southern Giraffes in the paper 

 recently read before the Society by Mr. De Winton \ From this it 

 appeared, as was natural, that the Nigerian skull was undoubtedly 

 most nearly allied to that of the true Northern Giraffe, Giraffa 

 camelopard'alis ; but on careful comparison it yet seemed so different 

 in details that he thought it should be considered as representing 

 a Western subspecies of that animal. 



The skull was clearly, judging by its extreme lightness and 

 fragility, that of a female, but was actually longer than any of the 

 three fine male skulls, representing both Northern and Southern 

 species, in the British Museum, and of course considerably 

 longer than any female skull, there being a decided difference in 

 size between the sexes. As another indication of the great size 

 of this Giraffe, it might be noted that although its cannon-bones 

 still had their epiphyses separate, their total length exceeded 

 that of the cannon-bone (with ankylosed epiphyses) of a female 

 Abyssinian Giraffe by nearly 3 inches, and scarcely fell short of 

 that in an old male Giraffe from the same region. These differences 

 in size are brought out by the measurements below. 



In the form of the skull the most obvious and probably most 

 important difference was to be found in the proportions of the face. 

 While in the ordinary Giraffe the tapering forward of the face from 

 the orbits to the muzzle was even and gradual, in the present skull 

 it was exceedingly abrupt at first, from the very broad orbita,l region 

 to a point above the anterior premolars; then from this point 

 forward the muzzle was very narrow and slender, almost parallel- 

 sided, broadening again in the region of the very large spatulate nasal 

 opening. The latter opening, in its great length and breadth, was 



' See P. Z. S. 1897, p. 275. 



