132 TROPICAL SAVANAS 



produced at a birth, and when three days old it can trot 

 by the side of its mother, who protects it from the 

 attacks of carnivores by kicks with her powerfxil legs. 

 The large eyes and the long neck give the giraffe a 

 very wide range of view, very necessary in an animal 

 which frequents open country. 



Deer are usually absent from open plains, and are 

 entirely absent, as we have seen, from Africa south of 

 the Atlas. But in South America, where antelopes are 

 totally absent, the deer extend their range to the plains 

 and swamps. Thus the pampas of the Argentine and 

 Paraguay, together with similar regions further south, 

 are inhabited by the pampas deer {Cariacus campestris), 

 which finds the necessary shelter among the long 

 pampas grass. This deer occurs in pairs or small 

 parties, and the female is particularly ingenious in pro- 

 tecting her fawn. The latter makes off through the 

 grass on an alarm, and then cowers down, while the 

 mother takes herself off in another direction in a slow 

 and Mmping manner. 



We have spoken of the camels of the steppes of the 

 Old World, and have seen also that their allies, the 

 Uamas of the New, are intolerant of great heat, so that 

 the tropical savanas, whether in Africa or in America, 

 have no members of this family. 



Of the odd-toed ungulates the rhinoceroses, as already 

 mentioned, extend into the plains, this being especially 

 true of Btu-chell's rhinoceros, a grass-eating form. Of 

 the striped horses of Africa BurcheU's zebra and the 

 quagga are (or were) both inhabitants of the open 

 grass-covered plains, but both are chiefly extra-tropical, 

 inhabiting the vast plains of the extreme south of 

 Africa. The African wild ass is similarly an inhabitant 

 of the arid regions of North Africa. While BurcheU's 



