MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES 



117 



assumed not only when drinking, but likewise when the animal 

 desires to pick up a leaf from the ground or on the rare occasions 

 when it grazes. This habit so graphically described is the one 

 which alone concerns my subject. The patterns of hair peculiar 

 to the giraffe need a short description. 



Fig. 44. — Giraffe in the act of drinking or browsing off the ground. 



Hair Patterns. 



Fig. 43 shows a whorl (B) at the side of the neck on a level 

 with the prominent spines of the seventh cervical and first dorsal 

 vertebrae. It lies exactly over a spot which may be well called 

 a " critical area," for an important hinge of the whole mechanism 

 of the giraffe's great neck is situated here. Though the remarkable 

 length of its neck is intimately associated with its daily needs for 



