26 PdrULAR OFFICIAL GUIDE. 



The oldest, the best-known and the most enmmon Giraffe 

 is the three-horned species, found from central Uganda 

 southward. The five-horned variety meets the former in 

 Uganda, and occurs from that region westward to the edge 

 of the great equatorial forest, and on westward even to 

 Lake Tchad, and the lower Niger Vallej'. Excepting in 

 Uganda, Kahma's country, and a few other protected dis- 

 tricts, the Giraffe is now rare, particularly throughout the 

 regions that are accessible to hunters. Thoiisands of these 

 wonderful creatures have been killed by hunters, both 

 white and black, solely for the sake of seeing them dead, 

 and leaving them as prey to the hyaenas and hunting-dogs. 

 It seems to be beyond the power of most men who can 

 shoot to see living wild animals, no matter how large or 

 wonderful, without desiring to reduce them to carcasses, 

 fit only for scavengers. 



The Eland, {Taurotragns oryx), is the largest and most 

 imposing of all antelopes. As might be inferred from its 

 great size, it is now so nearly extinct that it has disappeared 

 from the lists of dealers in wild animals. The fine adult 

 male specimen now in the Antelope House was obtained 

 from the herd of the Duke of Bedford, through Carl Hagen- 

 beck, and was presented to the Zoological Society by Mr. 

 George F. Baker. The female is the gift of Mr. C. Ledyard 

 Blair. 



Of Elands there are two well-marked species. That of 

 eastern and southern Africa, here represented, was once 

 numerous on many of the fertile plains of the great plateau 

 now known as Rhodesia, and in fact throughout nearly the 

 whole of the uplands of eastern Africa, from the Cape to 

 the Sahara. Unfortunately, however, white hunters and 

 modern firearms have reduced the countless thousands of 

 the great herds to numbers so small that the capture and 

 exportation of Elands have practicall3^ ceased. 



Although a number of Elands have been born in cap- 

 tivity, the number on public exhibition still remain very 

 small. The only captive herd known to the writer is that 

 of the Duke of Bedford, in Woburn Park, England, which 

 is at once the admiration and envy of all collectors of living 

 wild animals. 



The White-Tailed Gnu, {Connochaetes gnu), once was 

 abundant in South Africa, south of the Vaal River. But it 

 has shared the fate of all the other large mammals of that 

 region, and only a few scattered bands still exist. Nearly 



