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Show Feet, inches. From the muzzle to the root of the tail following the line of the back ............................................ 3 5 From the muzzle to the interspace of the horns... 9 From the horns to the termination of the mane at the shoulder.................................................... 1 9| Length of the back, from the mane to the root of the tail ........................................................................ 10\ From the base of scapida to the end of the forehoof (in straight line) ........................................ 2 9J From the base of scapula to olecranon ............... ......... 10 From the olecranon to the carpus ....................... ......... 9 \ From the carpus to the end of the hoof............... 1 3 Length of neck from occipital to anterior edge of scapula placed vertically ................................... 1 3 Length of back from anterior edge of scapula to root of tail............................................................ 1 1J Length of hind limb from superior border of ilium to end of hoof, measured in a straight line ... 2 6g From border of ilium to fabella ........................... ...........9 From patella to calcaneum ................................... ..........11 From calcaneum to end of hoof ........................... 1 4 628 m r . f . e . b e d d a r d o n a [May 29 In comparing these measurements, we may note first of all that the foetus described here is exactly half the length of the newly born Giraffe measured by Owen in the year 1839. It is remarkable to find, from a further comparison of these measurements, that there is a serious discrepancy between the relative lengths of the neck and body in the foetus examined by myself and in the newly born animal measured by Owen " a few minutes after its birth." According to the latter, the length of the back from the end of the mane to the root of the tail is considerably more than the length of the neck. According to my own measurement (with which, as will be seen, the drawing made independently of my own measurements agrees) the back is shorter than the neck. I feel convinced that, though I may have erred in failing to arrive at an extreme accuracy of measurement, so great an error cannot have crept in. The liairy covering of the foetus was in more than one respect interesting. At first sight it appeared to be for the greater part without hair at all. Examination with a lens, however, showed fine, very pale-coloured hairs everywhere in those tracts which a superficial study would pronounce to be naked. This very delicate hairy covering was, however, manifest upon the neck and legs as a whitish bloom when the skin was comparatively dry, not, however, upon the trunk and flanks. In those regions where the hair was thus evident without the use of a lens the hairs w^ere naturally longer; still they had the same whitish colour, and the suggestion given is as if the neck and feet, and especially the feet, had been powdered. |