154 VERTEBRATES. 



tongue is rough, and terminates in a point. Each jaw has six 

 grinders on each side, hut the lower jaw only has eight cutting 

 teeth in front, while the upper jaw has none. 



" The hoof is cloven, has no heel, and much resemhles that 

 of the ox. It may he observed, however, at the first sight, that 

 the hoof of the fore foot is larger than that of the hind foot. The 

 leg is very slender; but the knee is swelled like that of the 

 stumbling horse, because the animal kneels down to sleep. It has 

 also a large callosity in the middle of the sternum, owing to its 

 usually reposing on it. 



" If I had never killed a Giraffe, I should have thought, 

 with many, other naturalists, that its hind legs were much shorter 

 than the fore ones. This is a mistake : they bear the same pro- 

 portion to each other, as is usual in quadrupeds. I say the same 

 proportion as is usual, because, in this respect, there are variations, 

 even in animals of the same species. Every one knows, for in- 

 stance, that mares are lower before than stallions. What deceives 

 us in the Giraffe, and occasions this apparent difference between 

 the legs, is the height of the withers, which may exceed that of 

 the crupper from sixteen to twenty inches, according to the age 

 of the animal ; and which, when it is seen at a distance in motion, 

 gives the appearance of much greater length to the fore legs. 



"If the Giraffe stand still, and you view it in the front, the 

 effect is very different. As the fore part of its body is much 

 larger than the hind part, it completely conceals the latter j so that 

 the animal resembles the standing trunk of a deep tree. 



" Its gait, when it walks, is neither awkward nor unpleasing ; 

 but it is ridiculous enough, when it trots ; for you would then take 

 it for a limping beast, seeing its head, perched at the extremity 

 of a long neck which never bends, swaying backwards and for- 

 wards, the neck and head playing in one piece between the shoul- 

 ders as on an axis. However, as the length of the neck exceeds 

 that of the Isgs at least four inches, it is evident tha* the length 

 of the head, too, taken into the account, it can feed without diffi- 

 culty, and of course is not obliged either to kneel down or to 

 straddle with his feet, as some authors have asserted. 



