The Giraffe 499 



animals found farther south ; the pale body-colour between the dark, blotches 

 is more clearly defined and the legs below the knee are more often pure 

 white without any dapplings. It is to be remarked that, in the wild state, 

 giraffes are not only much deeper and richer in colouring than in captivity, 

 but are better nourished, stronger, and considerably heavier than those bred 

 in confinement. There seems to me, indeed, to be more difference 

 between wild and captive examples of these animals than in any others 

 shown in the various Zoological Gardens. 



In height a full-grown male giraffe will stand fully 19 feet, from the 

 hoofs to the tips of the false horns. An old bull, shot by the writer's 

 hunting companion, Mr. W. Dove, in the North Kalahari, in 1890, 

 was most carefully measured by the writer and found to be less than half 

 an inch short of 19 feet. Mature cows run to 16 or 17 feet in height. 

 A cow giraffe, shot by the writer in the desert country near the Botletli 

 River, Ngamiland, measured 16 feet 10 inches. The hoofs are divided 

 and in shape are somewhat like those of cattle, although, of course, much 

 more elongate. The hoof of a full-grown male will measure close on 

 1 2 inches in length, and gives an enormous spoor after the rains. The 

 spurious hoofs, common to most ruminants, are lacking. The height of 

 the giraffe results mainly from the enormous length of leg and neck, 

 although, curiously enough, this animal possesses only the same number of 

 neck vertebra (seven) as other mammals, including man. 



The neck is decorated with a short, crisp, erect mane of chestnut- 

 coloured hair. The tail is long — 34 to 36 inches in length — and 

 terminates in a full tassel of thick, wiry, black hairs. The mamma? are 

 four in number. The nostrils can be tightly closed at will, by a curious 

 arrangement of sphincter muscles ; this I take to be a provision of nature, 

 not, as is sometimes suggested, against sand-storms, but against the 

 numerous thorns of the acacia-trees from which the animal procures most 

 of its sustenance. Giraffes are, as a matter of fact, seldom found in open 



