40 ON A NEW SUBSPECIES OF GIEAFFE FROM NIGERIA. [Feb. 1, 



quite unlike that found in any other skull examined. As indications 

 of the elongation of the face, the measurements given below of the 

 muzzle anterior to the teeth and of the mandibular diastema might 

 be specially noticed. 



The horns were slender, as usual in the female, but their direc- 

 tion was doubly diiferent from that normal, as they were widely 

 divergent instead of parallel wlien viewed from in front, and, 

 when vieA^ed from the side, more vertically upright, instead of 

 lying back in the plane of the forehead. The third horn, for a 

 female, was well developed, its bony core forming an obsiously 

 distinct ossification on the top of the swollen frontals. 



A large anteorbital vacuity was present on each side. There 

 was also a peculiar smooth-edged vacuity, large enough to admit a 

 human thumb, at the posterior edge of each squamosal, opening 

 into the canal that terminates below in the postglenoid foramen. 

 No trace of this vacuity was to be seen in other skulls, but although 

 perfectly symmetrical on the two sides, it was rather doubtful 

 whether it would prove to be more than an individual peculiarity. 



On the lower side of the skull, apart from the striking difference 

 in aspect produced by the long parallel-sided muzzle, there was 

 little of importance to notice. 



The following were the skull-measurements of Abyssinian and 

 Nigerian Giraffes (in millimetres) : — 



Old male. Adult female, Adult female, 



Abyssinia. Abyssinia. Nigeria. 



Extreme length 670 613 715 



Basallength 580 546 640 



Greatest breadth 303 265 282 



Nasal opening, length from 



gnathion to junction of nasals 



with premaxillK 162 163 194 



Do., breadth 68 65 67 



Muzzle to orbit 380 354 416 



Distance between tips of horns 



(centres) 160 125 217 



Muzzle to front of anterior 



premolar 245 230 270 



Lower jaw, angle to front of 



bone' 521 480 558 



Do., diastema 190 178 220 



Weight, with lower jaw 19 lbs. 8 oz. 71bs. 6oz. lOlbs. 7oz, 



Weight, without lower jaw 41bs. ll^bz. Olbs.lO^oz. 



The East- African skull obtained by Mr. Neumann, and described 

 in Mr. De Winton's paper, weighed 22 lbs. 14§ oz. with, and 19 lbs. 

 6 oz. without the lower jaw. 



Taking all the circumstances into consideration, Mr. Thomas 

 considered that this fine animal might be provisionally assigned 

 to the Northern species, Giraffa camelopardalis, of which it 

 would form a Western subspecies, that might be termed G. c. 

 peralta, on account of its superior height. 



, Mr. Thomas expressed his appreciation of the scientific spirit 

 shown by Lieut. McCorquodale in preserving so clumsy and yet so 



