1904.] SUBSPECIES OF GIRAFFA CAMELOPARDALIS. 203 



local forms of the Bonte-Quagga,- which apparently gi-ades imper- 

 ceptibly into the typical race, has been accorded (although I 

 think wrongly), in a late issue of the Society's ' Proceedings ' *, 

 specific rank. 



I should mention that I am much indebted to Mr. Rowland 

 Ward, of 166 Piccadilly, and his staff in connection with the 

 subject of this paper, which indeed could scarcely have been 

 written at all apart from their valuable assistance. 



Before proceeding to the descriptive part of my subject, I may 

 take the opportunity of recording a few general remarks with 

 regard to the local races of Giraffa camel ojKirdcdis, the geographical 

 range of which once extended from, or nearly fi'om, the Cape to 

 the Egyptian Sudan and Abyssinia. Two featui'es are noteworthy 

 in regard to these local forms, some of which probably intergrade. 



Firstly, we notice as we proceed from south to north the 

 gradual passage of a two-horned animal into one (so far as the 

 males are concerned) with three horns. But the development is 

 by no means simply progressive, for we find in the eastern 

 districts of the continent a "tendency to the formation of a five- 

 horned, and even of a six-horned, race. 



Secondly, proceeding in the same direction, a transition is 

 observable from a blotched animal (that is to say, one with 

 irregular dark chocolate-coloured blotches on a tawny ground) 

 with dark legs spotted down to the hoofs, to one in which the 

 markings take the foi'm of a white or buifish netwoi-k on a chest- 

 nut or liver-coloured ground, while the lower portion of the legs 

 becomes unspotted white ; the culmination of this type being 

 pi'esented by the Somali G. reticidata. Here, however, as in the 

 case of the horns, the progression is by no means regular, since 

 we find in East Africa a strong tendency to the development of a 

 star-like type of coloration. Indeed, it would seem that in this 

 part of the continent Gii^affes have, so to speak, got completely off 

 the line, and i-un riot, both in the matter of coloration and horn- 

 development. 



By no means the least noteworthy feature in regard to the 

 change of the type of coloi'ation in Giraffes as we proceed from 

 South to North-east Africa, is that it is precisely the reverse of 

 that among the Quaggas and Bonte-Quaggas. That is to say, that 

 whereas among tlie various races of Giraffe the general colour 

 lightens and the legs pass from spotted to pure white as we go 

 from south to north, among the local forms of Equus hurchelli the 

 stripes on the legs, underparts, and hind-quarters, which are fully 

 developed in the northern types, such as E. hurchelli yranti, have 

 disappeared more or less completely in the southern forms, the 

 supreme development in this respect being reached by the true 

 Quagga, (E. quagga). 



: In the case of the Quagga-group, a satisfactory and sufiicient 

 explanation of the reason for the colour-change has, I think, been 

 given by Mr. Pocock f. As regards the cause of the change in the 

 reverse direction presented by the Giraffes, I have not hitherto 



* P. Z. S. 1901, vol. ii. p. 503, pi. xxix. f ' Nature,' vol. Ixviii. p. 356 (1903). 



