398 T R AV ELS IN 
eflential and fuller details for that part in this 
work where they naturally ought to appear. 
Many and various acco/Unts have been pu- 
bliflied of the giraffe ; but, notwithftanding 
all the elegant and fcientific differtations writ- 
ten on this fubjeft, no juft or precife idea hath 
been hitherto formed of its configuration, much 
lefs of its manners, its taftes, its charader, and 
its organization. 
If, among the known quadrupedes, prece- ^ 
de'ncy be allowed to height, the giraffe with- 
out doubt mufl hold the firft rank. A male, 
which I have in my colledion, and of which 
a figure is given in the eighth plate, meafured 
after I killed it fixteen feet four inches, from 
the hoof to the extremity of its horns. I ufe 
this expreffion in order to be underftood ; for, 
the giraffe has no real horns, but between its 
ears, at the upper extremity of the head, arife, 
in a perpendicular and parallel diredion, two 
excrefcences from the cranium, which, with- 
out any joint, flretch to the height of eight or 
nine inches, terminating in a convex knob, 
and are furrounded by a row of flrong flraight 
hair, which overtops them by feveral lines. 
The female is generally lower than the 
male. That reprefented in the following plate 
1 " was 
