554 
VERTEBRATA. 
GIRAFFL. 
THE GIRAFFID^. 
This family comj)rises a single genus, GIRAFFE, and a single species, the African Giraffe 
or Camelopard, Camelojmrdalis Giraffa. This remarkable animal is distinguished from all 
the other ruminants by several important characteristics. The body is short and supported 
upon very long legs; the dorsal line sloj)es downward toward the rump, the withers being 
greatly elevated, and from this it was long confidently asserted that the fore-legs were much 
longer than tlie hinder pair, although this is not the case. The neck is excessively long, and 
furnished with a short mane, running down its dorsal line ; the head is comparatively small, and 
the countenance exceedingly gentle and pleasing in its expression, the eyes being remarkably full 
and lustrous. The dentition is the same as that of the deer, the upper incisors and the canines in 
both jaAvs being quite deficient. ' The forehead bears a pair of tapering cylindrical bony append- 
ages, which are covered with a hairy skin like the rest of the head. These are permanent, and 
might be regarded as the representatives of the processes of the frontal bone upon which the de- 
ciduous antlers of the deer are developed, but they are distinct bones, only united by those of the 
skull, by a suture, and instead of rising exclusively from the frontal bones their broad base covers 
the coronal suture, so that they rest partly upon the frontal, and partly on the parietal bones. In 
front of the horns, the frontal and nasal bones are elevated to form a I'ounded protuberance which 
has been described as a third horn by many writers. The feet are destitute of the accessory 
hoofs, Avliich occur in most of the other ruminants except the Camelidse ; and the tail is rather 
long, and terminated by a tuft of very long and thick hairs. 
The giraffe is the tallest of all ruminants, the males not uncommonly measuring fourteen and 
sometimes eighteen feet froin the top of the head to the ground. The females are usually a 
