of Ruminants. The neck is often supposed to have some relation to this method of feeding. But a more ingenious explanation of its inordinate length is that it serves as a watch-tower. The long grass of the districts inhabited by the animal swarms with Lions and Leopards, which must be foes. The long neck allows of a wide look out being kept, and it is noteworthy that the Ostrich, living under similar conditions, is also renowned for its length of neck. It is the spots upon the Giraffe which have given it its name of Cameleopard; these spots present in the southern form a series of chocolate-coloured areas, sharply marked off by white spaces. Of these spots it is asserted that they serve as a means of concealing their possessor. Sir Samuel Baker[1] wrote of it in the following words: "The red-barked mimosa, which is its favourite food, seldom grows higher than 14 or 15 feet. Many woods are almost entirely composed of these trees, upon the flat heads of which the giraffe can feed when looking downwards. I have frequently been mistaken when remarking some particular dead tree-stem at a distance that appeared like a decayed relic of the forest, until upon nearer approach I have been struck by the peculiar inclination of the trunk; suddenly it has started into movement and disappeared."
The Giraffe, remarked Pliny, "is as quiet as a sheep." The Roman public, to whom the first Giraffe ever brought into Europe was exhibited, expected from its name "to find in it a combination of the size of the camel and the ferocity of a panther." As a matter of fact, Giraffes in captivity are not always sheep-like in temper. They will kick with viciousness and vigour, and will even initiate an attack upon their keeper. At the same time they are singularly nervous creatures, and have been known to die from a shock. In moving, the Giraffe uses the fore- and hind-limb of each side simultaneously; this gives to its gait a peculiar rocking motion, the singularity of which is heightened by the curving movements of the long neck, which even describes now and then a figure of eight in the air. Giraffa camelopardalis and the species (?) already referred to are the only existing Giraffes (of the genus Giraffa), and they are not found out of Africa. Sir Harry Johnston has lately given a brief account of a larger and more brilliantly coloured species from Uganda
- ↑ Wild Beasts and their Ways, 1890, p. 151.
