The

CHAPTER XXX

The Giraffe, Buffalo, and Zebra

he Giraffe.-Passing on in the accepted order we come to the Ruminantia family or hoofed quadrupeds which chew the cud. The species under this heading are indeed interesting. First of all we find that marvelous animal the giraffe. Standing twelve feet high at the fore shoulders, his head towers majestically eighteen feet in the air, and the short sloping body mounted on legs seven feet long seems inadequately proportioned to the long tapering neck with its

slender thirty-four inch head. This head is peculiar in itself. It is narrow and sloping, covered with a hairy skin and terminating in a tuft of black hair. The upper lip is entire and there is no muzzle. The ears are large and pure white in color. The tongue is very long, pointed and flexible. It may be well to explain here why the giraffe possesses the peculiarities which distinguish him from all other animals. His height, he is taller than any other living being that man

has knowledge of, is given to him in order that he may be able to reach up into the trees for the leaves which form his principal food. His peculiar tongue is so delicate that the giraffe is able to pluck a single blade of grass. The tongue can not only be lengthened or shortened at will, but can also be widened and contracted. In spite of the huge size of the animal, it can pass its tongue into a tube which would scarcely admit of an ordinary lead pencil. When we consider the

great height of the giraffe's head and that it sometimes feeds on grass, it may easily be imagined that it is difficult and awkward for it to reach the ground. It accomplishes the feat, however, by spreading its front legs to their utmost extent and making full use of its long neck and flexible tongue above referred to. The giraffe being naturally defenseless, is compelled to depend on speed to enable him to escape

an enemy. The long legs provide him with this, and one of the big animals at full speed is too fast for any beast in the forest or on the plains of Africa. The sportsman's only hope is to kill or injure badly with the first shot, for once frightened they are away like an express train. It takes only a few steps for them to acquire tremendous speed, and the little African ponies used as saddle horses are soon left far in the rear. It must not be imagined that man is the sole enemy of the giraffe. Lions and leopards kill great numbers of them, and it is to avoid such attacks that they are often seen running with their peculiar rocking, ugly gait across the plains at a tremendous pace. Their height and the odd deep sienna color of the body, covered with rustcolored spots darker in the center, makes the giraffe very conspicuous when in the open and the object of continual stalking by the beasts of prey. This naturally renders them so extremely wary and difficult shooting that the bagging of a giraffe is considered a big day's work. Nature has provided them with a means of protection little understood. When in the forest where the giraffe naturally belongs, his gaudy coloring blends so thoroughly with the tropical foliage that it is hard to distinguish one from a tree or a tree from a giraffe. Even the natives are unable to distinguish them at any distance in the forest. When on the run, as might be expected, the animal is very odd looking. It proceeds by a series of awkward bounds, while the tail is swung from, side to side and the long neck rocks to and fro as if it were loose in its socket.

THE SWIFTNESS OF THE GIRAFFE.-A native came one day in great haste to inform his master, a great traveler, that he had seen in the neighborhood a giraffe browsing upon the limbs of a mimosa tree. "Full of joy, I instantly leaped upon one of my horses, and made my servant mount another, and, followed by my dogs, I galloped towards the mimosa indicated, but the giraffe was no longer there. We saw him crossing the plain on the western side, and we spurred on to overtake him. He was trotting along lightly, without, however, exerting himself unduly. We pressed the chase, and from time to time fired several shots after him; but imperceptibly he gained so much upon us, that after following him for three hours, we were forced to stop, our horses being quite blown, and we lost sight of him." Here is a graphic picture of a giraffe hunt:

"Our stealthy approach," says the writer, "was opposed by an ill-tempered rhinoceros, which, with her ugly calf, stood directly in the path; and the twinkling of her bright little eyes, accompanied by a restless rolling of the body, giving earnest of her intention to charge. A discharge of musketry, however, put her to flight, and I set spurs to my horse. At the report of the gun and the sudden clattering of hoofs, away bounded the giraffes in picturesque confusion, clearing the ground by a series of froglike hops, and soon leaving me far in the rear. Twice were their towering forms concealed from view by a park of trees, which we entered almost at the same instant; and twice, in emerging from the labyrinth, did I perceive them tilting over a hill far in advance.

"In the course of five minutes the fugitives arrived at a small river, the treacherous sands of which receiving their long legs, their flight was greatly retarded; and, after floundering to the opposite side, and scrambling to the top of the bank, I perceived that their race was run. Patting the steaming neck of my good steed, I urged him again to his utmost, and instantly found myself by the side of the herd. The stately bull being readily distinguished from the rest by his dark chestnut robe and superior stature, I applied the muzzle of my rifle behind his dappled shoulder with my right hand, and drew both triggers. But he still continued to shuffle along, and being afraid of losing him, should I dismount, among the extensive mimosa groves with which the landscape was now obscured, I sat in my saddle, loading and firing behind the elbow; and then placing myself across his path until the tears trickled from his full brilliant eyes, his loftly frame began to totter, and at the seventeenth discharge from the deadly rifle, like a falling minaret bowing his graceful head from the skies, his proud form was prostrate in the dust."

The meat of the giraffe is held in high regard by the natives, who cut it in strips and hang it out in the sun to dry. In the state of preservation that it acquires it is called biltong. The hide is used for making shoes and various other leather articles. The trail or footprint left by the giraffe is a curious one, easily followed. It is shaped somewhat like a parallelogram, about eleven inches long, rounded at the heel and tapering toward the toe. However, the African jungle

is so full of trails of animals of all sorts and it is so difficult to tell fresh ones from the old, that hunting is usually dependent on a sight of the animals themselves.

The Buffalo.-Among the wild ruminants of Africa we next reach the buffalo. It is only necessary to look once at this ugly brute to realize his dangerous possibilities. Of all the African animals, not even excepting the uncertain tempered rhino, the buffalo must be approached with the greatest caution. A savage brute, he will often charge a man on sighting or scenting him, and as his eyes are very good and his hide so thick that a bullet must be very well placed to stop him, the wise hunter sees to it that he is within reach of a tree which can be quickly climbed before interfering with even a single buffalo. The charge of a herd is simply irresistible and actually carries all before it. Even small trees offer no opposition, and they go through the jungle like a traction engine.

The full grown male stands about five feet six to eight inches high at the shoulders and is upwards of twelve feet in extreme length. His whole structure is very powerful, with a short neck and ponderous body, deep chested and mounted on short solid legs terminating in a divided hoof. The back is straight and hunchless and the head is short and small in proportion to the animal's bulk. It seems odd that the buffalo should be able to attain such high speed with the short legs nature has endowed him with, but one has only to witness one buffalo charge to be convinced of his great speed forever after.

The buffalo's eyes are a very good indication of its character. They are small and sinister, overshadowed by rough and ponderous dark colored horns, nearly in contact at the base, spreading horizontally, and turned upwards and inwards at the tips, which measure from four to five feet between. The hide is bluish purple, black and Lare with the exception of a few bristles. The muzzle is square and moist, shaped like that of the ox. The female is like the male, but smaller. They inhabit the plains and forests of the interior in large herds.

The Zebra.-Another African animal of considerable size and much interest, alike for its speed and its curious coloring, is the zebra. It is not a ruminant, like the giraffe and buffalo, and has not a