152 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



parts from the loins were low, like those of a lion, but the 

 shoulders, fore-feet, and breast were elevated above propor- 

 tion to the other parts ; the neck was small and lengthened 

 out from its large body, like that of a swan ; the head in 

 form resembled a camel's, but was in size about twice that 

 of a Lybian ostrich, and it rolled the eyes, which had a 

 film over them, very frightfully. It differed in gait from every 

 other land or water animal, and waddled in a remarkable 

 manner ; each leg did not move alternately, but those on the 

 right side moved together, independently of the other, and 

 those on the left in the same manner, so that each side was 

 alternately elevated. This animal was so tractable as to be 

 led by a small string fastened to the head, and the keeper 

 could conduct it wherever he pleased, as if with the strongest 

 chain. When it appeared it struck the whole multitude with 

 terror, and it took its name from the principal parts of its 

 body, being called by the people, extempore, Camelopardalis." 

 The Giraffa in an adult state is reported to be sometimes 

 nearly twenty feet high from the summit of the head to the 

 sole of the foot. Among a dozen specimens which we have 

 seen, Mr. Burchell's male, in the British Museum, is the 

 tallest, and measures seventeen feet six inches ; the rest did 

 not exceed sixteen feet. The head is about two feet six 

 inches long ; the height from the shoulder to the ground 

 ten feet nine inches, and from the breast to the ground 

 near six feet ; the hornlike processes eight inches long ; 

 height of the croup above nine feet ; and the tail, includ- 

 ing the tuft, near five feet. The females are smaller than 

 the males, and have four inguinal mammas ; they are said 

 to be gravid a twelvemonth, and to produce only one calf 

 at a birth. This at first is spotted like the mother, with 

 rufous marks, which darken, if it be a male, to deep brown. 

 In the teeth of this animal the external incisors have a 

 bilobate form. It is gentle in disposition, and might be 

 easily rendered domestic, and extremely useful to traverse 



