“If I had not myself killed the giraffe, I should have believed, as have many naturalists, that the fore legs are much longer than the hind. This is an error; for the legs have, in general, the proportion of those of other quadrupeds. I say in general, because in this genus there are varieties, as there are in animals of the same species.... His defence, as that of the horse and other hoofed animals, consists in kicks; and his hinder limbs are so light, and his blows so rapid, that the eye cannot follow them. They are sufficient for his defence against the lion. He never employs his horns in resisting any attack.... The giraffes, male and female, resemble each other in their exterior, in their youth. Their obtuse horns are then terminated by a knot of long hair: the female preserves this peculiarity some time, but the male loses it at the age of three years. The hide, which is at first of a light red, becomes of a deeper colour as the animal advances in age, and is at length of a yellow brown in the female, and of a brown approaching to black in the male. By this difference of colour the male may be distinguished from the female at a distance. The skin varies in both sexes, as to the distribution and form of the spots. The female is not so high as the male, and the prominence of the front is not so marked. She has four teats. According to the account of the natives, she goes with young about twelve months, and has one at a birth.” --------------------- THE WEEK. [Illustration: Flaxman.]