RECORDS OF MOVEMENTS FROM OBSERVATION. 
259 
“ There were sixteen of these stately beasts in all, and a grand sight 
it was to view so many of them together. They . . . allowed us to 
approach to within two hundred yards of them before starting off at 
their peculiar gallop. (N.B.—Giraffes never trot, as they are so often 
represented to do in drawings. They have but two paces, a walk and 
a gallop or canter, and break at once from one into the other).” 
In his interesting book, Selous has a picture of a giraffe 
walking; the animal is supported on the left laterals, the 
right hind-foot is approaching the place from which, in 
close proximity thereto, the fore-foot has just been lifted 
—a phase somewhat like 11 of the camel, series 13; or 
4 of the horse, series 3. The same characteristic has 
been observed by the writer in the walk of a giraffe. 
Baker, in “ Albert Nyanza Great Basin of the Nile,” 
chap, viii., describing a giraffe hunt, says— 
“ A good horse is required, as, although the gait of a giraffe appears 
excessively awkward from the fact of his moving the fore and hind legs 
of one side simultaneously, he attains a great pace, owing to the length 
of his stride, and his bounding trot is more than a match for any but 
a superior horse.” 
In the same book is a picture of Sir Samuel himself 
pursuing a herd of giraffes ; the animals are represented 
as racking, the phase selected being similar to 7 of 
series 42. 
In “ Wild Beasts and their Ways,” chap, xix., Baker 
again alludes to the fast pace of a giraffe—■ 
“ It moves like a camel, both legs upon the same side simultaneously. 
The long neck swings ungracefully when the animal is in rapid motion, 
and the clumsy half-canter produces the appearance of lameness.” 
The writer is inclined to believe that, when hard 
pressed, the rack of the giraffe, like that of the camel, 
will be exchanged for the transverse-gallop. 
The Kangaroo. Mr. W. Saville Kent, in his valu¬ 
able work “ The Naturalist in Australia,” says of this 
animal — 
“ All the Macropodicke are distinguished by the preponderating length 
of their hinder limbs, upon which alone they progress under any stimulus 
to rapid movement, i>y a characteristic series of leaps and bounds.” 
To this method of progress, it will have been seen, the 
writer has applied the name of “ricochet.” 
Reptiles. The motion of reptiles was not included 
in the photographic researches of the writer, but a few 
remarks founded on his observation of the use they make 
of their limbs may not be irrelevant. 
An alligator, during an ordinarily slow walk on dry 
land, will move his feet in the same consecutive order, 
and with the same alternations of support, as a horse 
grazing in the fields. An acceleration of this pace results 
in the diagonal legs moving in pairs, much in the same 
order as those of a horse while trotting; whether, during 
a more rapid motion, the body of an alligator is unsup¬ 
ported for any portion of its stride was not determined, 
from inability to obtain a faster speed with the reptile 
experimented with. 
The movements of the crocodiles, the lizards, and 
other reptiles of the same general formation, probably 
