ADVANTAGE OF A LONG NECK 
in fact, break up the large body into less conspicuous 
patches. As for the long neck, its presence has been 
interpreted in two ways. On the one hand it is sug- 
gested that length of neck is favourable to the cropping 
of the branches of high trees; on the other, the head 
perched upon so high a look-out tower enables the animal 
to keep a wary gaze upon the surrounding neighbour- 
hood. It is remarkable that in two African animals, 
the ostrich and the giraffe, and to a less extent in an 
antelope (Lithocranius), which all frequent grassy 
country with scattered bushes, the same elongation of 
the neck occurs. Giraffes seem to be divisible into 
‘two well marked varieties. But so few individuals 
comparatively speaking have been examined that it 
is a little dangerous to assert that these are constant 
species. In the northern form the red brown blotches 
are sharply marked off at their edges, so that the white 
bands are equally conspicuous and divide the skin in 
a reticulate fashion. This kind of giraffe has, more- 
over, a particularly well developed median unpaired 
horn. In the southern form the median horn is a low 
elevation, and the demarcation between the brown and 
white is not so sharply marked, so that the animal is 
blotched rather than reticulate. Other varieties have 
been named. 
THE ELEPHANT 
The elephants are a dwindling race in numbers, 
though hardly indeed in size. At the present day there 
are but two different species, the African and the 
Indian. In former periods of the earth’s history there 
were large numbers of different kinds with a much 
more extensive range. Several of these lived in England. 
Nowadays the elephant is a purely tropical beast. 
Apart from the resident staff, the elephant is the only 
creature at the Gardens which stands up resolutely 
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