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Show 274 MR. W. E. DE WINTON ON THE [Feb. 16, the reason for the nomenclature of the two species being left in very unsettled state. The exhibition of the skin of a Somaliland animal by Mr. Oldfield Thomas, on behalf of Messrs. Bowland Ward & Co., at a meeting of the Society on Feb. 20th, 1894, made me look into the literature on the subject. Since then the British Museum has been fortunate in augmenting the older material by heads of both species received from the actual collectors-Mr. H . A. Bryden having presented a head of the Southern form brought home by Kama, killed in the North Kalahari; and Mr. Arthur H. Neumann a head of the Northern form, killed a little to the east of the Loroghi Mountains and north of the Guaso Nyiro(about 1° N. lat.); besides which others have been acquired by purchase. I must express m y thanks to the authorities of the Museum for giving m e every facility in examining the material in the National Collection. I have also had access to several specimens contained in private collections, and to the valuable collection of skulls in the Boyal College of Surgeons, kindly placed at m y disposal by Professor Stewart. That so few specimens of this extraordinary animal find their way to this country is no doubt due to the value set upon the hides in the countries where they are obtained, by the natives for making shields, and by the settlers for " sjamboks," or whips, the skin of the neck of a bull Giraffe standing second only to Hippopotamus hide in value. Besides, the absence of attractive horns does not commend the head in the eyes of sportsmen as a trophy of sufficient value to repay them for the trouble and expense of transporting such bulky material to the coast, so that all the more credit is due to those generous and patriotic hunters who have presented specimens to the National Collection. At the meeting of the Society when the above-mentioned Somaliland specimen was exhibited, Mr. Oldfield Thomas pointed out the differences in the markings characteristic of the two forms ; and in order to show that the Somaliland animal did not need description, as had been suggested, mentioned that Sundevall's name would apply to the specimen under notice, but, pending the arrival of a fresh wild-killed southern specimen to compare with it, purposely ignored the obvious fact that Linnasus's name applied solely to the northern form. Etienne Geoffroy St.-Hilaire (Ann. Sci. Nat. 1827, p. 222) was the first to mention any distinction between the Northern and Southern Giraffes, but seems never to have fulfilled his promise to describe the two forms further and to give them specific names, though he gives a plate of the skull of the " Giraffe du Cap." Fischer (Syn. M a m m . 1829, p. 456) mentions this fact thus : " Camelopardalln Sennaarensem a Capensl specie dlfferere Geoffroy alllque recentlores, notls tamen, quibus ulraque distinguatur, nondum Indlcatls." This sentence may have been considered sufficient to constitute a naming of the two species, or perhaps, what is more probable, specimens of the two forms were labelled sennaarensls |
