OCR Text |
Show 1904.J SUBSPECIES OF GIRAFFA CAMELOPARDALIS. 22.'^ both the Lado and the Cape forms, in which they are wanting. The presence of posterior horns, coupled with the abortion of the front horn, is therefore a distinctive feature of the present form, which might appropriately be called the Four-horned Giraffe. Entering somewhat more fully into the details of the features presented by the skull of this form, it may be mentioned that, in addition to the great size of the postex-ior, or occipital horns, it is characterised by its genex-ally large dimensions, and more especially by tlxe gx-eat length and massiveness of the main horns, of which the extremities are expanded in a knob-like manner. The length of the horns, measured from the surface of the skull between their bases, is 7 inches, against 5| inches in a male Text-fig 35. Skull of male North Transvaal Giraffe. •skull of the Baringo Giraffe collected by Sir H. Johnston. In a giraffe-skull from the Sudan in the British Museum the horns are, however, nearly as long as in the present specimen, but are much more slender. In the Transvaal skull the basal length is 25 inches, against 24] inches in the aforesaid specimen of the Baringo race. It is thus larger- than most, if not all, giraffe-skulls from East Africa. On the other hand, it is exceeded in this respect by the type, and only known, female skull of the Nigerian G. c. peralta, of which the basal length is 26] inches. This affords an indication of the very large dimensions presumably attained by the last-named race. |