]901.] FIVE-HOKNED GIRAFEE FROM MOUXT ELGON. 475 



Museum he was struck by the presence in them of pecuhar pro- 

 jections on the sides of the occiput between the ears, on which 

 account he called the animal a Five-horned Giraffe, and by this 

 name it has been frequently spoken of in popular periodicals. 



To e?;amine the systematic position of this Giraffe, and to study 

 the origin and homologies of its cranial protuberances is the object 

 of the present paper. 



Sir Harry Johnston obtained, and has generously presented to 

 the Museum, skulls of two males and two females, with their 

 accompanying head-skins, and these make a series of remarkable 

 value, as it seldom happens that such large animals are represented 

 in our Museums by more than one or two specimens from any 

 one place. 



The character of the markings in these specimens is on the 

 whole very similar to that found in the Xorthern Giraffe, and 

 wholly unlike that of the Somali and Galla form {Qiraffa c. nil- 

 culata de Wint.). The blotches in young specimens are reddish 

 fawn, darkening in the centre to deep blackish brown, and this 

 darkening spreads outwards in old specimens, until the blotches 

 are wholly blackish. 



The colouring is thus essentially similar to that found in both 

 the Nubian and Southern Giraffes, which in this respect do not 

 differ materially from each other. In the Southern animal the 

 darkening of the centres of the blotches may be seen in Harris's 

 figure of the Giraffe, while their total blackening has been again 

 and again observed'. 



The anterior median horn is heaA'ily developed in the males, and 

 even in one of the female skulls a separate ossification is present. 

 From this point of view the animal is distinctly " northern " 

 rather than " southern." 



The main horns are large, and quite normal in position. 



The posterior pair of " horns" — and 1 use this term because if 

 not developed enough to be properly called horns in themselves, 

 they apparently correspond to what are undeniably horns in their 

 fossil relations — prove unexpectedly to be of no importance from 

 the systematic standpoint. For in some degree, as will be seen 

 further on, they are present in all male Giraffes, aUhough hardly 

 perceptible in the Southern form. Their development goes pari 

 jxissu with that of the anterior median horn, least developed in 

 G. capensis, most in G. reticulata and in true G. camelopardalis, of 

 which latter the Elgon Giraffe is a particularly fine representative. 



The net result, from the specific standpoint, of my observations 

 is that the Elgon Giraffe cannot be separated from the jN'ubian form, 

 Giraffa camelopardalis ; that this latter grades, in the development 

 of its anterior and posterior horns, southwards through " G, tippels- 

 Iclrclii " and " G. schilling^ " ^ to the Southern Giraffe, which 

 may therefore prove to be only a subspecies of it. On the 



■' Cf. Brvden in Ward's ' Large Game of Africa,' p. 498 (1899). 

 2 Matschie, SB. Gcs. nat. Fr. Berl. 1898, p. 78. 



