“The musk-oxen, like the buffalo, herd together in bands, and generally frequent barren grounds during the summer months, keeping near the rivers, but retire to the woods in winter. They seem to be less watchful than most other wild animals, and when grazing are not difficult to approach, provided the hunters go against the wind. When two or three men get so near a herd as to fire at them from different points, these animals, instead of separating or running away, huddle closer together, and several are generally killed; but if the wound is not mortal they become enraged, and dart in the most furious manner at the hunters, who must be very dexterous to evade them. They can defend themselves by their powerful horns against wolves and bears, which, as the Indians say, they not unfrequently kill. The musk-oxen feed on the same substances with the rein-deer, and the prints of the feet of these two animals are so much alike, that it requires the eye of an experienced hunter to distinguish them. The largest killed by us did not exceed in weight three hundred pounds. The flesh has a musky disagreeable flavour, particularly when the animal is lean, which unfortunately for us was the case with all that we now killed,” The bulls of this species killed during Parry’s second voyage weighed, upon an average, about 700 lbs., yielding about 400 lbs. of meat; and they stood about 10½ hands high at the withers. On the staircase of the Museum are also stuffed specimens of a male and female Giraffe, or Camelopard, which were presented to the Museum by Mr. Burchell, the traveller in Africa. The living giraffe which was presented to George IV. in 1827, by the Pacha of Egypt, died in 1829. The other giraffe sent to the government of France, in 1827, is still living in the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris. It is impossible from a studied specimen to form an adequate idea of the grace and beauty of this remarkable animal; nor of the impression produced upon the senses by a creature of such enormous height lifting up its head to gather the tender leaves from branches three times as high as a tall man. Till the living giraffes were brought to England and France there was a general belief that the descriptions of this animal were partly fabulous. It is now established that the account which was given of this animal by Le Vaillant, one of the most amusing of travellers, who saw the animal in its native woods, is perfectly accurate. We copy the following description from his Second Voyage, as translated in ‘The Menageries,’ Vol. I.:--