The two drawings of a giraffe, Figs. 43 and 44 were made for me for the purpose of illustrating one of its habits and two of its peculiarities of arrangement of its hair. This stately creature is the tallest known animal and is the sole representative of its ancient family, more common in the days when giants abounded. Its range is becoming more limited and its enemies not less dangerous, and it is expected in the course of some years to add to the number of the recently-extinct creatures. Habits. Living mainly in dry sandy regions giraffes find their food exclusively in leaves plucked from trees, and are said by some authorities to exist for a long period without drinking, but an interesting account quoted by Lydekker from Selous should be mentioned here. Selous writes that on a certain occasion he reached camp “a little before sundown, just in time to see three tall, graceful giraffes issue from the forest a little distance beyond, and stalk across the intervening flat, swishing their long tails to and fro, on their way down to the water. It is a curious sight to watch these long-legged animals drinking, and one that I have had several opportunities of enjoying. Though their necks are long, they are not sufficiently so to enable them to reach the water without straddling their legs wide apart. In doing this, they sometimes place one foot in front, and the other as far back as possible, and then by a series of little jerks widen the distance between the two, until they succeed in getting their mouths down to the water; sometimes they sprawl their legs out sideways in a similar manner.” Lydekker adds that this position has to be assumed not only when drinking, but likewise when the animal desires to pick up a leaf from the ground or on the rare occasions when it grazes. This habit so graphically described is the one which alone concerns my subject. The patterns of hair peculiar to the giraffe need a short description. [Illustration: Fig. 43.--Giraffe showing at A and B, hair-patterns of a remarkable kind at the place where the main movements of the neck occur.] [Illustration: Fig. 44.--Giraffe in the act of drinking or browsing off the ground.] Hair Patterns.