286 
THE STORY OF THE GIRAFFE . 
employed by the cow in defending- her young, and likewise in the contests 
which take place among the males during the pairing season. 
Some writers have discovered ugliness and a want of grace in the giraffe, 
but I consider that he is one of the most strikingly beautiful animals in the 
creation; and when a herd is seen scattered through a grove of the pic¬ 
turesque parasol-topped acacias which adorn their native plains, and on 
whose uppermost shoots they are enabled to browse through the colossal 
height with which nature has SO' admirably endowed them, he must indeed 
be slow of conception who fails to discover both grace and dignity in all 
their movements. 
As in the case of most wild animals, the surroundings of the giraffe are 
a protection to him. Among the great South African forests, where innum¬ 
erable blasted and weather-beaten trunks and stems occur, I have repeatedly 
been in doubt as to the presence of a troop, until I had recourse to my field 
glass, and I have known even the practiced eye of the natives deceived, at 
one time mistaking these trunks for giraffes, and again confounding real 
giraffes with these aged veterans of the forest. The dappled hide of the 
giraffe blends harmoniously with the splashes of light and shade formed by 
the sun glinting through the foliage of the trees beneath which the animals 
take their stand, and thus intensifies the illusion. 
Giraffes range in herds of sixteen to one hundred. They are hunted 
principally for their hides, which are worth from twenty-five to forty dollars 
each, 
I never shot one of these harmless, beautiful creatures, although I have 
had many opportunities. 
