5 i o Great and Small Game of Africa 



part of Africa where, hitherto, no giraffes had been supposed to exist. 

 Only the skull and the anterior cannon-bones of this animal appear to have 

 reached England. These, on examination, seemed to indicate that this 

 giraffe differed somewhat from the northern and southern forms, especially 

 in its superior height, and Mr. Oldfield Thomas named the variety, or sub- 

 species, Giraffa camelopardalis peralta? What is known of it is described in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1898, p. 40. Mr. Thomas is of 

 opinion that this Niger form is most nearly allied to the northern race of 

 giraffes, and he points out that the skull differs materially from other 

 forms. 



A young male giraffe, captured in Senegal, was purchased by the 

 Zoological Society and brought to their gardens in Regent's Park in July 

 1898. Unfortunately, this animal died, after but a month's sojourn in its 

 new abode. It is described as belonging to the northern form. Its 

 markings — light fawn patches upon a whitish ground — seem to me to 

 indicate that it was closely allied to the well-known race of Soudanese 

 giraffes so long familiar in the Regent's Park Gardens — a race which in its 

 looser and paler markings differs materially from the giraffes shot in recent 

 years in Somaliland, Gallaland, and the Lake Rudolf regions. 



H. A. Bryden. 



THE DEER 



Family Cervid^e. Genus Cervus — Typical Deer. 



This family being but very poorly represented in Africa, and only in 

 the region to the north of the Sahara, it will be unnecessary to devote 

 more than a very brief space to its distinctive characters. With the ex- 

 ception of two small kinds, the males of all existing species of deer are 



1 It may be doubted, however, whether specimens of this race, if the sub-species is further identified, 

 will prove to be taller in stature than the largest recorded specimens shot in South Africa. 



