GIRAFFE. 
43 
back could with ease ride under his belly without 
stooping.” The giraffe measures seventeen feet 
from the crown of the head to the soles of the fore 
feet ; though he falls so abruptly from the shoulders, 
that from the top of the rump to the bottom of 
the hind feet he only measures nine. This is not 
owing to any real difference in the length of the 
legs, but to the vast length of the shoulders, which 
gives the disproportionate height between the fore 
and hind parts. On the highest part of the head 
are situated two straight horns about six inches 
long, tufted at the top. Besides these horns, says 
the Count de Buffon, which are found on the head 
of the female giraffe, as well as on that of the male, 
there is, at almost an equal distance between the 
nostrils and eyes, a remarkable excrescence, which 
seems to be a bone covered with a soft skin, and 
garnished with smooth hair. This osseous excrescence 
is more than three inches long, and is much inclined 
towards the front, or makes a very acute angle with 
the bone of the nose. The colour of this animal’s 
robe is a bright shining yellow, and the spots are, in 
general, rhomboidal. 
The Count thinks it extremely probable, from 
the inspection of these horns, which are solid, and 
resemble in substance the horns of the stag, that 
the giraffe may be ranked in the same genus. Of 
this there could not remain a doubt, if we were cer- 
tain that he shed his horns annually. But it is 
now unquestionable that he ought to be separated 
