DEER. 
47 
Ruminants in which the horns are bifurcated, and are shed and 
renewed annually, the horny sheath slipping off its bony core, and 
being replaced by a fresh horny growth, a process wholly unlike 
anything found either in the Antelopes or Deer. In its habits it 
resembles the Antelopes, and is found in the open prairies of 
North America. 
The GiraffidcB, containing only the Giraffe {Giraffa Camelopar- 
dalis), of which a stuffed specimen 17 ft. 4 in. in height, and a 
skeleton are placed in the centre of the Saloon. Its true horns are 
two in number, small, solid, persistent, and covered with hair, but it 
has besides a bony protuberance on the middle of the face, which 
increases with age, and in old animals appears as a third horn; it 
has only two toes on each foot, the outer ones being entirely absent. 
At the present time Giraffes are being driven further and further 
back into the centre of Africa, over the whole of which they used to 
range, like the other large animals of that continent, and it is feared 
that before very long the species will be entirely exterminated. 
Giraffes browse partly on ground vegetation, partly on the leaves of 
trees, their great height and long extensile tongues enabling them 
to strip branches which are far out of the reach of other animals. 
The Cervidce, or Deer family, consists of a very large number of 
genera and species inhabiting Europe, Asia, and America, but is, 
except for one species found in Barbary, entirely unrepresented 
in Africa. They are distinguished from the other Ruminants by 
their antlers, which in the majority of the species are present in 
the males only. Antlers are bony outgrowths of the frontal part 
of the skull, annually shed and renewed, without any horny sheath 
over them, but during growth covered with a sensitive hairy skin 
provided with blood-vessels, the so-called velvet.'’"’ When they 
have reached their full size, the blood-vessels become aborted at the 
^^burr,"’-’ close to the skull, and the ^G^elvet'’"’ dries up and is 
rubbed off; the antlers, then bare and non-sensitive, are ready 
for their sole function — fighting. The time of the growth of 
the antlers precedes the pairing-season ; after this is over, by a 
process of absorption near the base, they become detached from 
the skull, and are shed.^^ A more or less elongated portion or 
pedicle’^ always remains on the skull, from the summit of which 
the new antler grows next year. The antlers increase in strength 
and complexity with the age of the animal, from the simple upright 
