340 BACKBONED ANIMALS. 
broad, the horns small, tapering, and set far apart. Be- 
tween the shoulders is a prominent hump which, with the 
neck, head, and chest, is covered by long, shaggy hair, the 
remainder of the fur being short and brownish in color. 
They herd in vast numbers. Allied to them are the Eu- 
ropean bison, or auroch,* the Cape buffalo (2. caffer) of 
South Africa, the Indian buffalo (B. dusalus), the yak, or 
grunting ox—a native of Thibet—and the zebu of India. 
VaLuE.—Every part of these animals has its value. 
Giraffes (Camelopardalide).—The giraffe is repre- 
sented by a single species inhabiting the plains of Central 
Africa. Its neck is of remarkable length, so that its head 
is often eighteen feet from the ground ; the number of 
vertebra, however, is seven, as in other mammals, each 
bone: being lengthened out. The back slopes rapidly to 
the tail, giving the impression that the fore-legs are the 
longest, but they are of equal length. They have no horns, 
but two long, solid appendages, attached partly to the 
frontal and partly to the parietal bones ; these are covered 
by the skin, and terminate in a tuft of bristles. In front 
of them is a prominence caused by a thickening of the 
bone that has been incorrectly described as a third horn. 
The tongue is nearly seventeen inches long, and in its use 
is not incomparable to the trunk of the elephant. 
VaLuE.—Skins, and the bones are made into buttons. 
Camel (Camelidz).—The camels have two incisor teeth 
in the upper jaw, and six incisors below, canine teeth 
in each jaw, and from eighteen to twenty molars. They 
* The extinct Bos primigenius lived in Germany and England 
during the time of Cesar, and is the urus of the Nibelungen song. 
They are the ancestors of the half-wild cattle in English parks, and 
the Holstein and Friesland breed. The European bison has only been 
saved from extinction by the Emperors of Russia, who have preserved 
eight hundred in the forests of Bialowicza, Lithuania, and have pre- 
vented the descruction of those running wild in the Caucasus. 
