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were two of them at Rome), I imagine its drawing, and a more certain knowledge of its reality, will not be disagreeable to you. As the existence of this fine animal has been doubted by many, if you think it may afford any pleasure to the curious, you will make what use of it you please." He goes on to say, that a party of men sent by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope on an inland discovery, found two of these creatures; but they caught only the young one, from which the drawing was taken, and the skin of which was sent to Holland "as a confirmation of the fact.*"

Ten years after this announcement of the actual existence of the giraffe, the skin of a fine male specimen was brought to this country by Lieut. Paterson, by whom it had been shot in the interior of Caffraria. This skin was presented to the celebrated John Hunter, and still forms part of his collection preserved at the Royal College of Surgeons †. It was the first example of the remains of the camelopardalis ever brought into England, and excited the greatest interest at the time. Since that period, however, fresh specimens have been rapidly added to the different European collections of Natural History, the results of exploratory journeys in the interior of Africa effected by modern zeal and enterprise; but it was only within a very few years that the habits and gait of this extraordinary species could in modern Europe be again contemplated in the living animal.

The Pasha of Egypt having learnt that the Arabs of the province of Sennaar in Nubia had succeeded in bringing up two young giraffes with camel's milk, caused them to be brought to Cairo; and after resting for three months in his gardens, to prepare them for a journey of greater difficulty and hazard, they were embarked in boats and conveyed down the Nile to Alexandria, where they were consigned to the English and French consuls, as presents from the Pasha to their respective sovereigns.

These young giraffes were both females; but as there was some difference in their size, the consuls of each nation drew lots for them, when the shortest and weakest fell to the lot of England. The giraffe destined for our sovereign was conveyed to Malta under the charge of two Arabs, and was from thence forwarded to London in a merchant vessel, and arrived on the 11th of August 1827. The animal was conveyed to Windsor two days after in a spacious caravan, and was lodged

* Phil. Trans. vol. lx.

+ Paterson's Travels in Africa, p. 127. A minute and interesting account of the arrival and conveyance of this giraffe may be found in the Literary Gazette, August 23rd, 1827.

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in a commodious hut, with the range of a spacious paddock, in the late king's private menagerie at Sandpit Gate. Shortly after its arrival at this place it was accurately measured; and its dimensions were found to be

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It was at that time exceedingly playful; but as its growth proceeded, which was rapid (having increased eighteen inches in less than two years), it became much less active; its health evidently declined; its legs almost lost their power of supporting the body; the joints seemed to shoot over; and at length the weakness increased to such a degree, that it became necessary to have a pulley constructed, which, being suspended from the ceiling of the animal's hovel, was fastened round its body, for the purpose of raising it on its legs without any exertion on its own part. From the harmless disposition and uniform gentleness of this animal, the interest which it had excited in His late Majesty was very great; but notwithstanding every attention, it died in the following year. Its food was barley, oats, split beans, and ash leaves. It was never observed to drink any other fluid than milk, its preference for which probably arose from that fluid being so long the only sustenance afforded it while living among the Arabs.

Owing to the distance from town at which this animal was kept, and the state of confinement which its weakly condition rendered indispensable during the latter period of its existence, the living giraffe was seen in this country by comparatively few individuals. The skin, however, and skeleton, both beautifully prepared, are preserved in the Museum of the Zoological Society,-the munificent donations of His present Majesty.

The full-grown male giraffe is reported to be sometimes nearly twenty feet high, from the summit of the head to the sole of the foot. The highest specimen, however, in the British Museum, (which is a beautiful male brought over by Mr. Burchell,) measures seventeen feet six inches; the remainder do not exceed sixteen feet. The greatest peculiarity in this animal, and what most strikes the eye of the observer, is the remarkable disproportion of the different parts of its frame. The head and the trunk are of extreme shortness, especially when compared with the neck and legs, which are

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as disproportionately elongated. The trunk, for example, is divided into three equal parts, the fore and hind quarters having respectively the same length as the intermediate division, a circumstance which occurs in no other quadruped. To this curtailed trunk are attached legs of extreme length, which, if they were of the ordinary proportions, would have rendered the giraffe the swiftest of animals: but the contrary is, in some measure, the result; for while the fore and hind pair of legs are too closely approximated, they are also of unequal length, and this inequality is so disposed as to retard swiftness of motion. The hare and the greyhound have the hinder legs the longest; and, as these are the principal propellers in locomotion, hence results the peculiar and proverbial swiftness of these quadrupeds; but in the giraffe, the proportions of the extremities are reversed, and, consequently, when compelled to flight, although from his superior stature he can, for a short distance, outstrip his pursuers, yet he soon grows weary, and becomes incapable of sustaining a prolonged chase.

From the time of Heliodorus bishop of Tricca, to the present day, the peculiar gait of the giraffe has been noticed, and is described by most authors as a sort of natural amble. That ancient writer, in his work entitled Ethiopica, written in the fourth century of the Christian æra, observes: "The ambassadors of the Axeomitæ (Abyssinians) brought presents to Hydaspes; and among other things, there was an animal of a strange and wonderful species, about the size of a camel, which had its skin marked with florid spots; the hinder parts, from the loins, were low, like those of a lion; but the shoulders, fore-feet, and breast, were elevated above proportion to the other parts; the neck was small, and lengthened out from its large body like that of a swan; the head, in form, resembled a camel's, but was in size about twice that of a Libyan ostrich; and it rolled the eyes, which had a film over them, very frightfully. It differed in gait from every other animal, terrestrial or aquatic, and waddled in a remarkable manner; each leg was not moved alternately and diagonally, but those on the right side moved together independently of the other, and those on the left side in the same manner, so that each side was alternately elevated. This animal was so tractable as to be led by a small string fastened to the head, and the keeper could conduct it whereever he pleased, as if by the strongest chain." Similar testimony respecting the gait of the giraffe is given by Antonio Constanzio, an Italian author, who describes the giraffe presented to Lorenzo de Medici by the Soldan of Egypt, and

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which was living at Florence in the year 1486. "It is," says he, "in the meridional part of Ethiopia that the camelopardalis, which the Arabs call Siraf, is found. Its hinder part is so low compared to the front, that it seems as if it were sitting. The inhabitants of Florence have seen this giraffe, without any effort, to run with so much speed as to outstrip the cavaliers, even when they gave the rein and spur to their steeds." In another place he adds, "What is very surprising, is, that Pliny, Solin, Strabo, Albertus Magnus, Diodorus, Varro, and other writers, were ignorant that this animal had horns; which leads me to conjecture that the one which was seen for the first time at Rome under the dictatorship of Julius Cæsar, had lost its horns, as well as the one which appertained to the Emperor Frederic in the time of Albertus Magnus." Lastly, Constanzio observes: "When the camelopardalis walks, the left foot does not follow the right fore-foot; on the contrary, the two right feet move together, then the two left."

It has, however, been denied that the giraffe exhibits this ambling gait. Mr. Davis the animal painter, who executed several portraits of the living giraffe for His late Majesty, observes: "I doubt whether the giraffe does amble, as asserted by M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire. Its walk is fast, from the length of its limbs, but extremely awkward; its gallop is a succession of jumps, and I see no reason why it should not continue long, if we judge by analogy with the form of some horses and dogs that have narrow stomachs: there may be a sufficient space for the play of lungs in depth, if not possessed in breadth. When I say the walk is awkward, perhaps this specimen is hardly a fair one to form such an opinion generally, for its growth has been very rapid, and its limbs are deformed by the treatment it experienced when in the hands of the Arabs in its overland journey from Sennaar to Cairo. It was occasionally confined on the back of a camel; and when they huddled it together for that purpose, they were not nice in the choice of cords, or the mode of applying them; it bears the marks of what it must have suffered in this way.

Our own observations on the giraffe now living in the Garden of Plants in Paris, which exhibits none of the untoward symptoms mentioned by Mr. Davis, go very much to support the ancient and generally received opinions on this subject. In starting, we observed that it invariably moved first a forefoot, then the hind-foot of the opposite side; this action was almost immediately followed by throwing forward the forefoot of the same side; then the hind-foot of the opposite side

Literary Gazette, Dec. 1, 1827.

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moved, and was as quickly succeeded by the carrying forward of the leg which had commenced the movement; the gait then proceeded, the two legs of the same side appearing to move simultaneously, although not exactly so; for on a close inspection, a trifling interval could be detected between the elevation of the fore- and hind-leg of the same side. Whenever it commenced its walk, its long neck was stretched forward in a line with his body, so as to give it rather a stiff and ungainly appearance; but the novelty and uncommon peculiarity of every movement and act of this animal overpowered every sentiment but that of astonishment and of delight.

The chief beauty in the giraffe is the form of the head, and the lustre combined with a mild expression of the eye. These organs are large and prominent, and are so situated at the side of the head, that the animal can see both behind and below it without turning its head. Hence, while browsing on the acacias which skirt the desert, he can command the space behind without suspending the act of feeding. The ears, as in all the ruminants, are well formed for catching sounds; they most resemble those of the ox. The nostrils have the same shape and position as in the camel, the upper lip being hairy and extending considerably beyond them. The sense of smell is acute and delicate. The most remarkable of the organs of sense is the tongue, which is so modified as to perform in the giraffe many of the purposes for which the proboscis of the elephant is destined. It is even in some respects superior to that wonderful organ; for being composed almost wholly of contractile parts, unmixed with rigid ligamentous and cartilaginous material, it can be wholly retracted within the mouth, although when fully extended its length is seventeen inches. When in the latter state, it is so attenuated that its extremity can be inserted into the ring of a very small key; it resembles, in short, a large black worm twisting about the animal's lips, and in this state it is used to hook down the branches which would otherwise be out of the reach of even the Giraffe's lofty stature. We have observed the giraffe in the Garden of Plants instinctively performing this action in extracting the highest straws from the partition which separated it from a neighbouring stall. With respect to the peculiar colour of this organ, Sir Everard Home observes: "As the tongue, in procuring and tasting the food, is much exposed to the sun's rays, it is furnished with a black rete mucosum, to prevent its being blistered.*" It is covered with little papillæ, which Mr. Davis † remarks it can raise at pleasure; for at times the tongue is perfectly smooth and soft, ↑ Literary Gazette, Dec. 1, 1827.

Phil. Trans. vol. cxviii.

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