CHAPTER XIX 
THE GIRAFFE ( CAMELOPARDALIS , L.) 
This beautiful and harmless creature is the tallest of 
the animal creation. The bull, when standing erect, 
will measure 19 feet from the crown of the head to 
the ground in a perpendicular line. The horns are 
short, and resemble those of the deer when not fully 
developed, as they are covered with a hairy skin, 
although hard ; these are never shed, but are firmly 
fixed upon the skull. The giraffe has a long 
prehensile tongue, which enables it to lay hold of 
twigs or small succulent shoots, upon which it 
feeds. 
The peculiar length of the fore legs makes it 
difficult for this animal to graze from the surface of 
the earth ; the elongated neck and prodigious height 
prove that its natural food is far above the ground ; 
and although it occasionally will eat ordinary herbage, 
its delight is to feed upon the delicate twigs of the 
flat-topped mimosas and several other varieties of 
shrubs. 
The pace of the giraffe is peculiar; it moves like 
a camel, both legs upon the same side simultaneously. 
