332 . UNGULATA 
In addition to the characters noticed above, the Giraffe is 
characterised by its great size and peculiar proportions; the neck 
and limbs being of great length, and the back inclining upwards 
from the loins to the withers. 
To produce the extremely elongated neck the seven cervical 
vertebra are proportionately long, which gives a somewhat stiff and 
awkward motion to the neck. The ears are large, the lips long and 
thin, the nostrils closable at the will of the animal, the tongue very 
long and extensile, and the tail of considerable length, with a large 
terminal tuft. An adult male may have a total height of 16 feet. 
The coloration consists of large blotches of darker or lighter chestnut- 
brown on a paler ground, the lower limbs and under parts being of 
a uniform pale colour. The Giraffe feeds almost exclusively on the 
foliage of trees, showing a preference for certain varieties of mimosa, 
and for the young shoots of the prickly acacia, for browsing on 
which its prehensile tongue and large free lips are specially adapted. 
It is gregarious in its habits, living in small herds of about twenty 
individuals, although Sir 8. Baker, who hunted it in Abyssinia, 
states that he has seen as many as a hundred together. 
Fossil species of Giraffa occur in Pliocene deposits over Greece, 
Persia, India, and China, thus affording one of many striking instances 
of the former wide distribution of the generic types now confined to 
the Ethiopian region. 
Allied Extinet Types.—The Pliocene deposits of many parts of the 
Old World yield remains of a number of large Ruminants which show 
such evident signs of affinity with the Giraffe that it is difficult to 
draw up a definition by which they can be separated in characters of 
family value from that genus. On the other hand, some of these 
forms approximate in the characters of the skull to some of the 
brachydont members of the Bovide, although it is quite clear from 
the nature of the cranial appendages that they cannot be included in 
that family. All these forms have brachydont molars, with rugose 
enamel, like those of the Giraffe ; while several of them have limb- 
bones approximating to those of the latter—the humerus, when 
known, having a double bicipital groove. The nature of the cranial 
appendages (when present) is not fully understood, but it appears 
that in some cases these approximated more to the type of an antler 
than to that of a horn ; although, from the absence of a “burr,” they 
appear never to have been shed. A gradual diminution in the 
length of the limbs and neck can be traced from the more Giraffoid 
to the more Bovoid forms of this extinct group; and it is manifest 
that if these animals be included in the Girafide the definition of 
that family as given above must be somewhat modified. Only brief 
mention can be made of the more important genera. 
The imperfectly known Vishnutheriwm, of the Pliocene of India 
and Burma, seems to make the nearest approach to the Giraffe, but 
