144 EINAR LÖNNBEBG, MAMMALS COLLECTED BY THE SWEDISH ZOOLOGICAL EXPEDITION ETC. 
the Giraffes which I saw more than once had no tail tuft, and the tail was muti- 
lated probably by some carnivorous animal. That a Giraffe was killed by Lions near 
our camp below Chanler Falls has been mentioned above (p. 75). Otherwise I sup- 
pose that the fullgrown Giraffes have hardly any other enemies than man. The hide- 
hunting has been successfully stopped, I believe, by the regulation that 5 £ must 
be paid for the license permitting one Giraffe to be killed. Fortunately for the 
species its head and horns are not very suitable as »trophies», and therefore I hope 
that these beautiful and interesting animals shall be able to live long in the arid thorn- 
bush country, north of Guaso Nyiri where certainly no settlers can expect to raise 
any crops on the gravel. And as the Giraffes browse in the tops of the acacias they 
cannot be said to compete about the food with the camels, cattle and sheep of the 
nomades. It does not therefore appear to be any reasonable cause for that they 
should be exterminated, and for the present the stock is good, I am glad to say. 
The Giraffes feed chiefly in the morning and in the afternoon. During the 
heat of the day they are often seen standing motionless under some acacia or euphor- 
bia asleep." It is easy to perceive even in a distance whether a Giraffe standing 
under a tree really is asleep, or not. If itis, the neck is not held so straight up as 
in a walking or browsing animal but it slopes forward very much in an analogous 
manner (although of course not so low!) as a sleeping or tired horse lets it head hang. 
It appears as if the long neck almost should upset the balance of the animal when 
its upper contour line is a straight continuation of that of the sloping back, but this 
is not so. Such an attitude evidently relieves and rests the musculature of the neck. 
The adult bulls which have a much heavier skull than the cows and the young ani- 
mals have, in correspondence to this, a much thicker neck than the latter. This is 
so conspicuous that it can be seen already at a considerable distance. The adult 
animals are, as already mentioned, darker than the young. That is, the dark areas 
are more strongly pigmented but the light net-work is white. A result of this is 
that the old animals usually look darker, but in certain shades of light they may 
shine rather whitish, just as Grant's zebras sometimes look whitish sometimes blackish. 
The young animals have red spots on a yellow ground colour which forms compara- 
tively broader interspaces than the white net-work of the adult. "The effect of this 
is that the young animals look reddish, and the same appears to be the case with 
some apparently fullgrown cows as well. But there is a certain amount of variation 
to be seen. The 28th of Febr. 1911 I saw two Giraffe cows near Thera which had 
comparatively small but very dark spots with broad whitish interspaces between. 
The bull in their company was more of the reticulata-type. There is thus no doubt 
that transitional stages between the »netted> and the »blotched» Giraffes occur. 
The Giraffes are very easily seen, even when they stand motionless, at a long 
distance, if not covered by trees or bushes, and I must confess that I never could 
' That is their habits during normal conditions but as mentioned above, if food is scanty during the dry 
season the Giraffes are more restless and may be seen travelling all day. 
