THE GIRAFFE. 



( Camelopardalis giraffa. ) 



Should a traveler returning from a far 

 country describe a wonderful animal, 

 with the head and body of a horse, neck 

 and shoulders of a camel, ears of an ox, 

 the tail of an ass, the legs of an antelope, 

 and the coloring and marking of a pan- 

 ther, he would be believed with difficulty, 

 and yet this combination very fairly de- 

 scribes the curious and interesting ani- 

 mal known to us as the Giraffe. 



This name is a corruption of the Ara- 

 bian serafe, the lovely one, and while a 

 single animal, away from its natural sur- 

 roundings, may not seem to merit the ap- 

 pellation, in its native woods it produces 

 a very different impression. 



The Giraffe is found in a wide curve, 

 extending over the eastern half of Africa 

 from Ethiopia as far south as the con- 

 fines of Cape Colony. Within this area it 

 frequents the sandy, desert-like portions 

 where small trees and shrubs abound. 



Hunters and explorers describe with 

 enthusiasm the appearance of the herds 

 of Giraffe, which are sometimes in 

 groups of six or eight, but more fre- 

 quently found in larger numbers, often 

 as many as thirty or forty being together, 

 while one traveler in the Soudan counted 

 on one occasion seventy-three, and at 

 other times one hundred and three and 

 over one hundred and fifty in one herd. 



Gordon Cumming tells us that "when 

 a herd of Giraffes is seen dispersed in a 

 grove of the picturesque, umbrella- 

 shaped mimosas, which adorn their na- 

 tive plains, and on the topmost branches 

 of which their immense height enables 

 them to browse, the observer would 

 really be deficient in appreciation of nat- 

 ural beauty if he failed to find the sight 

 a very attractive one." 



The Giraffe is curiously like the natural 

 objects of the locality in which he 

 lives. He is found in stretches of coun- 



try where half decayed, weather beaten, 

 moss covered trees resemble the long 

 necks of the animal; so much so that 

 Cumming says he was often in doubt as 

 to the presence of a whole troop of 

 Giraffe until he had used his spyglass, 

 and he adds : "Even my half-savage com- 

 panions had to acknowledge that their 

 keen, experienced eyes were deceived 

 sometimes ; either they mistook those 

 weather beaten trunks for Giraffes, or 

 else they confounded the real Giraffes 

 with the old trees. 



Though found in wooded sand belts 

 which are waterless a portion of the 

 year, the animal of necessity avoids the 

 tall, dense forests, for its food is chiefly 

 the tender leaves and buds of low-grow- 

 ing trees, especially the leaves of the 

 mimosa and of the prickly acacia. 



These trees are seldom more than 

 twelve or fifteen feet in height, and with 

 its long legs and neck the Giraffe can 

 easily reach the appetizing twigs and 

 leaves on the broad flat top of the tree. 

 Moving from one side to another, as if 

 the tree were a table spread for its use, 

 it throws out its long snake-like tongue, 

 which it can manipulate with great dex- 

 terity and which it uses as an elephant 

 does its trunk. When we remember 

 that the largest animals are sometimes 

 eighteen feet in height, and that the 

 tongue is seventeen or eighteen inches in 

 length, we can see how easily the Giraffe 

 can take its breakfast, while the tree that 

 furnishes it serves also as a screen or 

 shield to conceal it from its enemies. 



From the fact that the giraffe will 

 abide in localities which are waterless 

 for months at a time, it has been sup- 

 posed that water was not necessary for 

 its comfort. This is far from the truth, 

 and it has frequently been seen to drink ; 

 its appearance when drinking is most 



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