The Giraffe ("one who walks swiftly," the word means in Arabic) is, as every one knows, limited in its range to the African continent. It is not, however, so familiar a fact that there are two quite distinct species of Giraffe, one a northern form from Somaliland, and the other South African. The distinctness of these two, _G. camelopardalis_ and _G. australis_, has been lately worked out in some detail by Mr. de Winton.[205] The principal point of difference between them consists in the large size of the median horn in the Cape species, which is represented by the merest excrescence in the other species. The Giraffe of West Africa is held to differ from the northern and southern species, coming nearer to the former. It appears in the first place to be a larger animal, and slight differences in the skull have been pointed out. This series of peculiarities may be expressed, for those who do not object to trinomial nomenclature, by calling this novel western form _Giraffa camelopardalis peralta_. The existence of the three horns covered with unaltered skin is the main characteristic of this Ungulate. But the Giraffe also differs from other Artiodactyles by its enormously long neck, which enables it to browse upon trees inaccessible to the common herd {304} 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[206] 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."