53 



and well-proportioned. Giraffes are decidedly ill-proportioned, 

 and not adapted to a constantly active life, though capable of 

 running at a most rapid pace and for a considerable distance. 

 Lyddekker quotes Gordon Cumming as speaking of the Giraffe 

 as one of the most dignified and beautiful of animals. It is 

 difficult to agree with this when regard is had to the small 

 head, immensely long neck, preponderance in length of fore- 

 limbs over hind-limbs, though in certain attitudes and half- 

 hidden by low trees and brushwood, the Giraffe must present a 

 fine spectacle from some little distance. 



Camels, though able for immensely long journeys, and 

 capable of bearing great fatigue, cannot be said to have active 

 habits, and are said to be animals as vicious and intractable as 

 any that man has learnt to domesticate. The habits of the 

 Hippopotami and Rhinoceroses are sluggish and indolent in the 

 extreme, very much in keeping with their ungainly, heavy, 

 clumsy build of head, trunk and limbs. Tapirs are also shy, 

 inoffensive, sluggishly-disposed animals, which inhabit brush- 

 wood and swamps, and hide themselves in these for their 

 protection, being mainly nocturnal in habit. Of the Elephant 

 nothing need be said, for, whatever its great intelligence and 

 docility may do in raising it above its fellows in the eyes of 

 man, neither is its form elegant nor are its general habits active, 

 except on occasions. 



The Carnivores present a highly-developed order of 

 Mammals, the most important group of which are the Terres- 

 trial Carnivores. The Aquatic forms, such as Seals and 

 Walruses, are, without exception, ill-proportioned and some- 

 what clumsy in build, showing broad small heads, thick necks, 

 strangely-modified limbs and smooth shapeless bodies. Never- 

 theless, as a group, they are active in habits and much addicted 

 to combats of a fierce kind, especially the males, and are said to 

 be of a high degree of intelligence. In this instance our general 

 rule breaks down somewhat, though it may be remarked that 

 the Seals and Walruses, in spite of general activity, do not dis- 

 play any large range as to the kind of activity. They are 

 instances of animals very highly specialized for a monotonous 

 environment. 



The Terrestrial Carnivores are much more varied and 

 numerous. They are broadly divisible into the great groups of 

 Cats, Dogs and Bears, or CEluroidea, Cynoidea and Arctoidea. 

 With the Bears may be reckoned the Weasels and Raccoons. 



