1907.] COLOUR-STRIPING OF THE FACE OF GIRAFFES. 123 



The bands of alternate light and dark colour are as much 

 larger and wider in the adult Giraffe as are aU its dimensions 

 larger than those of the fcetus. But a fact in regard to the 

 banded appearance of the hairy coat of the face has come to light 

 in the case of the adult skins which is indicated in the enlarged 

 drawing of a piece of the fcetal pelage (text-fig. 40, p. 118). This 

 is that the bands are essentially due (at any rate, those which are 

 peculiar to the adult and most strongly-marked, viz., the hori- 

 zontal pre-orbital group of bands) to a differentiation of the hair 

 into parallel tracts of more densely placed hairs, the points of 





«i*'^r-& 



(/llli^H't> 



The same specimen as that shown in te\t-fig. 45. In this diawing the colour-effect 

 is ignored, and only the ridge-like aiiangement of the hau on the face and 

 muzzle in parallel fringes is shown. 



which converge and stand up so as to foi-m a well-marked raised 

 stripe, " fringe "or " ridge " *, and intermediate tracts of smooth 

 flat-lying hair. In some of the Museum specimens the more 

 crowded upstanding hairs appear to be coloui-ed more darkly than 

 those of the intermediate tracts, but really the colour-effect is 

 due to the pigment of the free ends of the hairs showing, whilst 

 the thicker cortical substance of the bases of the hairs is white 



* The ridge of upstanding hair corresponds, it must be noted, to what is a shallow 

 wrinkle-like groove in the fcetal skin. 



