278 MR, W. E. DE WINTON ON TUE [Feb. 16, 



Camelopardalis australis, Swainson, Geogr. & Classif. Anim. p. 95 

 ("1835) {;nomen vudum) ; A. Smith, Eep. Exped. Int. Afr. p. 40 

 (1836) (nometi nudum). 



Cameloixirdcdis capensis. Geoffr. {fide Gray) ? ; Ogilby, P. Z. S. 

 1836, p. 134 {iiomen malum) ; Le.^son, Nouv. Tabl. Ecg. An. p. 168 

 (1842); ex Levaillant, Vov. pis. 8 et 9. 



Cape Giraffe, Owen, Tr. Z. S. ii. p. 217, pi. xl. (1838). 



Giraffa austraJis, Eboads, P. Ac. Pbilad. 1896, p. 518 ; ex 

 " S. African form," Thomas, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 135. 



The ground-colour varies from white to dull fawn, the dark 

 blotches vary from dun to dark coffee-colour, alw ays darker in the 

 middle, the edges being broken and not sharply defined. The legs 

 are spotted down to the hoofs. On the forehead there is a bump 

 of flattened pyramidal form, larger in the males but never forming 

 anything like a honi. 



The young animal has very narrow clearlj^-defined white lines 

 between the darker markings, forming a network of lines over the 

 entire body, the dark patches receding with age. 



Within the last half-centmy this species has ranged from the 

 Orange to the Zambesi Elvers. Northward of this latter river on 

 the eastern half of the continent, at least, no Giraffe is found 

 for about 12 degrees ; but north of the Eufigi Eiver it again appears 

 and continues through Gei'man East Africa, reaching westward to 

 the shores of Lake Tanganyika, and occurring east of the Mau 

 Escarpment and south of the Tana Ei-\-er in British East Africa. 



There is no appreciable difference in size between the Northern 

 and Southern forms of Giraffe ; both species vary much in the 

 shades of colouring; the very old males or " Slink Balls" (a name 

 given to them from their exceedingly rank and po\^erful smell) of 

 both species are described by all liunters as being always un- 

 mistakably darker than any others of a herd. 



Mr. Arthur Neumann has kindly lent me the skin of a foetus 

 taken from a female Idlled in South Africa, and this shows that 

 the young animal very closely resembles the typical colouring of 

 the adult of the northern species. Mr. F. C. Selous tells me that 

 the calf is always a light brown, with a network of narrow clearly 

 defined white lines separating the dark markings. This is the 

 description I noted down of the young female captured on the 

 Sabi Eiver, when it first arrived at the Zoological Gardens ; a 

 very accurate figure of this animal will be found in ' The Field ' of 

 March 9, 1895. This animal is still alive and has not yet lost 

 these characters, though the white n;arkings are rather broader 

 and the dark markings less evejily cut. The colour of the dark 

 markings of this 3-year-old animal is coffee-brown, with a still 

 darker irregular pattern in the centre of each patch, thus not at 

 all light-coloured as would be supposed. This quite backs up 

 Mr. F. y. Kirby's opinion ; ' In Haunts of Wild Game,' he says 

 that he feels confident that the animals vary individually and do 

 not darken witli age as generally supposed, for one sometimes sees 

 young imimals dark-coloured, and unquestiouably old animals of a 

 very pale colour. 



