THE GIRAFFE AND OKAPI 239 
united to the skull. A third race or sub-species of giraffe has been identified in Western 
Africa mainly from the skull and cannon-bones of a specimen shot in 1897 at the junction of 
the Binue and Niger Rivers; but very little is known abont this form. Other varieties or 
sub-species may yet be discovered in other parts of the Dark Continent. It is lacking in the 
giraffe’s long neck. 
_ The towering height of the giraffe is entirely attributable to the great length of the neck 
and limbs. A full-grown bull giraffe will certainly measure occasionally as much as 19 feet in 
height. I measured very carefully a specimen shot by my hunting friend, Mr. W. Dove, in the 
forests of the North Kalahari, South Africa, which taped 18 feet 11} inches. A fine cow, shot 
by myself in the same country, measured 16 feet 10 inches, and there is no reason to suppose 
that cow giraffes do not easily reach fully 17 feet in height. These animals feed almost 
entirely upon the leaves of acacia-trees, the foliage of the fameel-doorn, or giraffe-acacia, 
affording their most favourite food-supply. It is a most beautiful spectacle to see, as I have 
seen, a large troop of these dappled giants — creatures which, somehow, viewed in the wild state, 
always seem to me to belong to another epoch — quietly browsing, with upstretched necks and 
delicate heads, among the branches of the spreading sokala, as the Bechuanas call this tree. 
The giraffe’s upper lip is long and prehensile, and covered, no doubt as a protection 
against thorns, with a thick velvety coating of short hair. The tongue is long—some 18 inches 
in length — and is employed for plucking down the tender leafage on which the giraffe feeds. 
The eyes of the giraffe are most beautiful — dark brown, shaded by long lashes, and peculiarly 
tender and melting in expression. Singularly enough, the animal is absolutely mute, and never, 
even in its: death-agonies, utters a sound. The hoofs are large, elongate, nearly 12 inches in 
length in the case of old bulls, and look like those of gigantic cattle. There are no false 
hoofs, and the fetlock is round and smooth. The skin of a full-grown giraffe is extraordinarily 
tough and solid, attaining in the case of old males as much as an inch in thickness. From 
these animals most of. the syamboks, or colonial whips, in use all over South Africa, are now 
made; and it is a miserable ‘fact to record that giraffes are now slaughtered by native and 
Boer hunters almost solely for the value of the hide, which is worth from 43 to 45 in the 
case of full-grown beasts. So perishes the Bera 
giraffe from South Africa. 
Giraffes live mainly in forest country, or 
country partially open and partially clothed with 
thin, park-like stretches of low acacia-trees. 
When pursued, they betake themselves to the 
densest part of the bush and timber, and, their 
thick hides being absolutely impervious to the 
frightful thorns with which all African jungle 
and forest seem to be provided, burst through 
every bushy obstacle with the greatest ease. 
They steer also in the most wonderful manner 
through the timber, ducking branches and 
evading tree-boles with marvellous facility. I 
shall never forget seeing my hunting comrade 
after his first chase in thick bush. We had 
ridden, as we always rode hunting, in our flannel 
shirts, coatless Attracted by his firing, I came 
up with my friend, who was sitting on the 
body of a huge old bull giraffe, which had’ 
fallen dead in a grassy clearing. He was looking 
ruefully at the remains of his shirt, which hung 
about him, literally in rags and ribbons. Blood The coloration of these animals harmonises exactly with the dark ana 
was streaming from innumerable wounds upon light splashes of their surroundings 
MALE SOUTHERN GIRAFFE 
