244 DE. p. CHALMERS MITCHELL ON [-^P^- 18, 



2. On a Young Female Giraffe from Nigeria. By P. 

 Chalmers Mitchell, M.A., D.Sc, Secretary to the 

 Society. 



[Received April 18, 1905.] 



(Text-figures 50 & 51.) 



Early in April 1905 Captain H. C. B. Phillips, British Resident 

 in Northern Nigeria, brought to London, and deposited in the 

 Zoological Gardens, a young female Giraffe about a year old, 

 and standing over 8 feet high, which he had obtained in 

 Nigeria in the district of Gummel, about 300 miles due west of 

 the south end of Lake Chad. Giraftes from Nigeria are not well 

 known. Mr. 0. Thomas (P. Z. S. 1898, p. 39) has made the skull 

 and anterior cannon-bones of a female, obtainednear the junction 

 of the Benue and Niger rivers, some 300 miles to the south and 

 west of the locality of Captain Phillips's specimen, the type of a 

 subspecies, Giraff'a camelopardalis peralta ; and Mr. Lydekker 

 (P. Z. S. 1905, voh i. p. 119) has referred to that name the skin, 

 skull, and limb-bones of an adult bull obtained by Captain G. B. 

 Gosling in Nigeria, and now in the British Museum (Natural 

 Histoiy). The head of the young female at the Gardens displays 

 a well-marked pair of main homs covered with very dark hair at 

 the tips, feeble swellings in the place of the occipital horns, and 

 a protuberance, rather lai'ge in area, but very flat, in jjlace of 

 the frontal horn. Mr. Thomas {loc. cif. p. 40) laid some stress 

 on the direction of the main horns. In Captain Phillips's young 

 female, as in the type-specimen, these horns are divergent when 

 viewed from the front. It appeal's to me, however, that in this 

 respect there is evidence of a good deal of individual variation in 

 Giraffes. In the fine head of the bull G. c. percdta movmted in 

 the British Museum the main horns are asymmetidcal, that 

 on the left side being markedly bent in towards the middle line. 

 In the two examples of the Koixlofan Gii-affe now living in the 

 Society's Collection the condition of the main horns differs. In 

 the female they are bent in towards the middle line ; in the 

 male they diverge slightly. So also the inclination of the - plane 

 of the homs to that of the forehead differs in individuals of the 

 same race. So far as the shape of the head and horns goes, 

 it would be difficult to distinguish this Nigerian Girafie from 

 the Nubian form. 



As Mr. Lydekker {loc. cit. p. 120) has given a description of 

 the coloi-ation of the Nigerian Gii-affe based on his examination 

 of Captain Gosling's specimen, it will be sufticient if I state how 

 far examination of the young female now at the Gaixlens confirms 

 the distinctness of the Nigerian race. The young female (text- 

 fig. 50, p. 245), like the adult bull, is much paler than the Nubian 

 form, the paleness being especially marked on the head and thighs 

 of the female. In the photograph, reproduced as text -fig. 50, whilst 



