732 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



The long, black tail, invariably curled above the back, no doubt renders it good 

 service against many a stinging insect ; and the straight horns, or rather excrescences 

 of the frontal bone, small as they are, and muffled with skin and hair, are by no means 

 the insignificant weapons they have been supposed to be. " We have seen them 

 wielded by the males against each other with fearful and reckless force," says Maun- 

 der, " and we know that they are the natural arms of the giraffe most dreaded by the 

 keeper of the present living giraffes in the Zoological Gardens, because they are most 

 commonly and suddenly put in use. The giraffe does not butt by depressing and sud- 

 denly elevating the head, like the deer, ox, or sheep, but strikes the callous obtuse 

 extremity of the horns against the object of his attack with a sidelong sweep of the 

 neck. One blow thus directed at full swing against the head of an unlucky attendant 

 would be fatal. The female once drove her horns in sport through an inch board." 

 The projecting upper lip of the giraffe is remarkably flexible, and its elongated pre- 

 hensile tip, performing in miniature the part of the elephant's proboscis, is of material 

 assistance in browsing upon the foliage and young shoots of the prickly acacia, which 

 constitute the animal's chief food. With feet terminating in a divided hoof, and a 

 ruminant like our ox, the giraffe has four stomachs, and an enormous intestinal length 

 of 288 feet : a formation which bears testimony to the vast and prolonged powers of 

 digestion necessary to extract nutrition from its hard and meagre diet. 



Ranging throughout the wide plains of Central Africa, from Caffraria to Nubia, the 

 giraffe, though a gregarious animal, generally roams about only in small herds. It is, 

 indeed, by no means common even at its head-quarters, and Captain Harris, who trav- 

 ersed the desert as far as the Tropic of Capricorn, seldom found giraffes without 

 having followed their trail, and never saw more than five-and-thirty in a day. Not- 

 withstanding the rapidity with which the cameleopard strides along, the fore and hind 

 leg on the same side moving together, instead of diagonally as in most other quadru- 

 peds, yet a full gallop quite dissipates its power ; and the hunters, being aware of this, 

 always try to press the giraffes at once to it, knowing that they have but a short 

 space to run before the animals are in their power. In doing this the old sportsmen 

 are careful not to go too close to the giraffe's tail ; for this animal, says Dr. Living- 

 stone, " can swing his hind foot round in a way which would leave little to choose 

 between a kick with it and a clap from the arm of a windmill." 



After man, the giraffe's chief enemy is the lion, who often waits for it in the thick 

 brakes on the margin of the rivers or the pools, and darts upon it with a murderous 

 spring while it is slaking its thirst. Andersson, as we have already narrated,* once 

 saw five lions, two of whom were in the act of pulling down a splendid giraffe, while 

 the other three were watching close at hand the issue of the deadly strife ; and Captain 

 Harris relates that, while he was encamped on the banks of a small stream, a ca- 

 meleopard was killed by a lion whilst in the act of drinking, at no great distance from 

 the wagons. It was a noisy affair; but an inspection of the scene on which it occurred 

 proved that the giant strength of the victim had been paralyzed in an instant. Some- 

 times the giraffe saves itself from the attacks of its arch-enemy by a timely flight ; but 

 when hemmed in, it offers a desperate resistance, and in spite of its naturally gentle 

 and peaceable disposition, gives such desperate kicks with its fore-feet as to keep its 

 antagonist at a respectful distance, and finally to compel him to retreat. 



*Ante, p. 699. 



