ORDER RUMINANTIA. 15 



tionate height of its fore-legs, and by a bony tubercle 

 which it has upon the forehead. 



Only one species is known (Camelopardalis Giraffe, 

 L.) confined in the deserts of Africa, with short gray 

 hairs, sprinkled with irregular yellow spots, with a 

 slight main, gray and yellow, which passes from the 

 ears to the crupper. It is the tallest of all animals, 

 for its head attains eighteen feet in height. It is of 

 a gentle disposition, and lives on the leaves of trees. 

 The Romans had living Giraffes at their games. 



The Ruminants with Hollow Horns 



Are more numerous than the others, and it has been 

 necessary to divide them into genera, from characters 

 of slight importance, drawn from the form of the 

 horns, and the' proportions of their different parts. 



M. Geoffroy has advantageously joined to these 

 those which give the substance of the frontal pro- 

 minence or bony nuts of the horn. 



The Antelopes (Antilope*J. 



Have the substance of their bony nut solid, and with- 

 out pores or sinews like the horns of stags. They re- 

 semble, moreover, the stags by the lachrymal sinuses, 

 by their lightness and swiftness. It is a very nu- 

 merous genus, which has been necessarily subdi- 



* This name is not ancient ; it is corrupted from Antholopos, found in 

 Eustathius, an author of the time of Constantine. The common gazelle 

 has been well described by iElian, under the name of Dorcas, which is 

 probably that of the roebuck. Gazel is Arabic. 



