CHAPTER XVI. 



THE GIRAFFE AND OK API. 



THE (JIKAFFE. 



i;y h. a Bin 1}|;\. 



n 



"i IKAFFES. whicli :iiv fciund only in the 

 \Ji^ continent of Africa, are the tallest of 

 all living creatures. They belong to 

 the Kiiniinaiits, or Cud-chewers, arrd naturalists 

 are inclined to place them somewhere between 

 the Deer Family and the Hollow-homed 

 linniinants. in whicli latter are to he found 

 oxen, buffaloes, and antelopes. Rutimever. the 

 Swiss naturalist, once defined them as " a most 

 fantastic foim of deei-," which is, perhaps, as 

 gijod a definiticm of thenr as one is likely 

 to Iiit npoir. Fossil discoveries show that, in 

 ages long remote, great giraffe-like creatures, 

 some of them liearing horns or antlers, roamed 

 widely in the south of Europe. Persia. India 

 and e\en China. 



Of li\'ing giraft'es, two S[iecies have thus 

 far been identified,— the Southei;x or Capk 

 (iniAFFE, witli a range extending from Bechua- 

 naland and the 'J'ransvaal to British fi^ast 

 Africa and the Soudan ; and the NuBIAX or 

 XciUTiiEitx Giraffe, found chiefly in East Africa, 

 SiDiialiland, and the country between Abyssinia 

 and the Nile. The southern giraffe, which, 

 from its recent appearance in the Gardens of 

 the Zoological Society, is now the more familiar 

 of the two animals, has a creamy or yellowish- 

 white ground-colour, marked by irregular 

 blotches, which vary in col.iur, in animals of diflereiit ages, from lemon-fawn to orange-tawny, 

 and in older specimens to a wry dark chestnut. (_)ld bulls and occasionally okl cows grow 

 extremely dark with age, and at a distance appear almost black upon the back and shoulders. 

 The northern giraffe is wid(4y different, the coloration being usually a rich red-chestnut, 

 darker with age, separated liy a, fine network of white lines, symmetrically arranged in 

 polygonal patterns. At no great distance this giraffe, instead of having the blotchy or dappled 

 appearance of the soutliern girafle, looks almost entirely chestnut in colour, ' Ai^-ain, the 

 southern giraffe has only tw,j h„nis, while the northern species usnallv develops \i third, 

 growing from the centre of the forehead. The.^e horns, whicli are covered with hair in both 

 species, and tufted black at the tips, are. in the youthful days of the animal, actually 

 separable from the bones of the head. As the animal arrives at maturity, they become firmly 



2(14 



J'lwto Inj Mixs li. J. ISrrl.'. 



SOnTHERX GIRAFFE LYI.\(( IIOWX. 



This giraffe wm a present tu Queen Victoria ; it irijly lived fonrtecn 



days after its arri\';il. 



