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Show 1897.] EXISTING FORMS OF GIRAFFE. 283 the smaller Grant's Zebra (E. granti) [which I described (Ann. Mag. N. H. ser. 6, vol. xvii. p. 319, 1896) and named in honour of Colonel Grant, who always persisted in its being specifically distinct from the S. African Chapman's Zebra (E. chapmanl)] from ranging northward and herding with its larger cousin. Unfortunately one gets no help from the pictures of the Giraffes in books of travel, for, excepting a photograph of a dead bull in Mr. J. G. Millais's ' Breath from the Veldt,' 1 know of no authentic pictures of wild animals, and this is only of one specimen and cannot show the general colouring of a herd. In the same way pictures in other books are taken from some single specimen, maybe living in the Zoological Gardens. One animal that the hunter is paying his particular addresses to may be coloured darker than the rest to represent the old bull, according to instructions given to the artist, but the whole herd has the unmistakable stamp of being drawn from a single specimen. I do not in any way speak disparagingly, but only regret that it must needs be so. The fact that the young of the southern species resembles the adult of the northern animal, seems to point to the presumption that the former is descended from the latter; but how are we to account for the third horn in the older form, for this appendage is not found in any of the known fossil Glraffidcei It seems, therefore, to have been acquired in recent times, but is hardly likely to have been established since the southern form got separated ; and, if not, the alternative is that the latter form has since its separation entirely lost this apparently useless ornament. I cannot believe that the -third horn of the northern Giraffe is so modern an acquisition, and I would much rather look upon it as the remains of A former development, for we may yet find an extinct form with this appendage equally or even more developed, and thus the superficial osseous incrustation of the skull of the males above referred to, formed by a superabundance of matter in the horn-core, may be all that is left of a much greater horn-development in some prior form. It is quite possible to imagine a very slight modification which would cause this matter to develop into external horns or antlers. With regard to the possible use of this massive head, I was anxious to find out whether the horns are used in fighting. Mr. Neumann says of the Three-horned species the nearest thing to fighting he has seen was two young males playfully butting one another with their heads ; he has seen Giraffes pressed by dogs keeping off their pursuers by kicking with their hind feet in rather a cowish fashion. Mr. Selous, on the other hand, says he once witnessed the following very pathetic incident:-a newly-born calf lying in the grass was seized by two Leopards, the mother Giraffe at once coming to the rescue fought with such effect with her fore feet that she succeeded in driving off the Leopards, but, unfortunately, one blow aimed at the Leopard struck the calf in the back, breaking it. On seeing this the hunter went up and put the poor little beast out of its misery. All hunters agree that the Giraffe never uses its head in self-defence. |
