that clothe the boundless plains of the interior, are widely distributeh throughout the interior of Southern Africa, but are nowhere to be met with in great numbers. In countries unmolested by the intrusive foot of man, the Giraffe is found generally in herds varying from twelve to sixteen; but I have not unfrequently met with herds containing thirty individuals, and on one occasion I counted forty together; this, however, was owing to chance, and about sixteen may be reckoned as the average number of a herd. These herds are composed of Giraffes of various sizes, from the young Giraffe of nine or ten feet in height, to the dark chestnut colored old bull of the herd, whose exalted head towers above his companions, generally attaining to a height of upwards of eighteen feet. The females are of lower stature, and more delicately formed than the males, their height averaging from sixteen to seventeen feet. Some writers have discovered ugliness and a want of grace in the Giraffe, but I consider that he is one of the most strikingly beautiful animals in the creation; and when a herd of them is seen scattered through a grove of the pictu resque parasol-topped acacias which adorn their native plains, and on whose uppermost shoots they are enabled to browse by the colossal height with which nature has so admirably endowed them, he must, indeed, be slow of conception who fails to discover both grace and dignity in all their movements. There can be no doubt that every animal is seen to the greatest advantage in the haunts which nature destined him to adorn, and among the various living creatures which beautify creation. I have often traced a remarkable resemblance be

tween the animal and the general appearance of the locality in which it is found.

"In the case of the Giraffe, which is invariably met with among venerable forests, where innumerable blasted and weather-beaten trunks and stems occur, I have repeatedly been in doubt as to the presence of them, until I had recourse to my spy-glass; and on referring the case to my savage attendants I have known even their optics to fail, at one time mistaking these dilapidated trunks for Camelopards, and again confounding real Camelopards with these aged veterans of the forest."*

The first living Giraffes, in the possession of the Zoological Society, says Wood, were brought by M. Thibaut in 1835. He succeeded in taking four, all of which he brought with him. One of them is still living. From this stock, several Giraffes have been born, some of which are now in England, and others have been sent to other countries. They are exhibited in most American Menageries.

One of the four originals killed himself soon after his arrival, by striking his head against a wall as he was rising from the ground. An accident of the same nature happened recently to another animal, one of its horns being broken off, and bent backwards; but owing to the presence of mind of the keeper, who immediately pulled the horn into its place again, no bad results followed, the fractured parts uniting naturally.

The tongue of the Giraffe is one of the most remarkable parts of its

* Cummings Adventures, vol. i pp. 269, 270.

structure. It is very flexible and capable of great changes of form, the Giraffe being able to contract it so that its tip could enter an ordinary quill. The animal is very fond of exercising its tongue, and sometimes pulls the hairs from its companions' manes and tails, and swallows them; no very easy feat, as the hair of the tail is often more than four feet long.

The movements of the Giraffe are very peculiar, the limbs of each side appearing to act together. It is very swift, and can outrun a Horse, especially if it can get among broken ground and rocks, over which it leaps with a succession of frog-like hops.

In this country it endures the climate well. The Giraffes in the Zoological Gardens which were born and bred in England seem very healthy and are exceedingly tame, examining the hands of their visitors, and following them round the enclosure. They eat herbs, such as grass, hay, carrots, and onions. When cut grass is given to

them, they eat off the upper parts and leave the coarse stems, just as we eat asparagus.

Giraffes have been brought to the United States at different times in the last twenty years; but they soon die, even in the hands of the most careful and experienced keepers of menageries. The celebrated impresario and manager General Welsh, who died recently in Philadelphia, actually fitted out and headed a hunting expedition into the interior of Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope, in pursuit of Giraffes. Two were brought to this country by him. They were the most delicately formed and beautifully colored animals ever seen; having very light brown spots on a cream colored ground. They were the first living specimens of the Giraffe ever imported into this country; but they lived only a few months after their arrival. A very large one, with darker spots, was afterwards exhibited, which was imported by the way of Egypt. Figures of the Giraffe, accurately outlined, occur frequently on the ancient monuments of Egypt

23

OF THE ANTELOPES IN GENERAL.

THE males are furnished with hollow horns, (seated on a bony core,) growing upwards, permanent, and annulated or wreathed. In both sexes there are eight front teeth in the lower jaw; and there are no canine teeth either above or below

Linnæus included the Antelopes in the Goat tribe, which they resemble in their horns; but they are now properly separated into an intermediate tribe between the Goats and the Deer.

The Antelopes are an elegant and active tribe of animals, which inhabit mountainous countries. There they bound among the rocks with so much lightness and elasticity, as to strike the spectator with astonishment. They browse like Goats, and frequently feed on the tender shoots of trees. In disposition they are timid and restless, and the Creator has bestowed on them long and tendinous legs, peculiarly appropriated to their habits and manners of life. These, in some of the species, are so slender and brittle as to snap with a very trifling blow.

The eyes of the Antelope are the standard of perfection in the East: to say of a fine woman that "she has the eyes of an Antelope," is considered the highest compliment that can be paid to her.

THE CHAMOIS.

The Chamois is about the size of the common Goat, and is of a dusky yellowish brown color, with the cheeks, chin, throat, and belly, of a

THE CHAMOIS.

yellowish white. The horns are slender, upright, about eight inches high, and hooked backwards at the tips: their color is black. At the back part of the base of each horn there is a tolerably large orifice in the skin, the nature and use of which do not yet seem to be clearly understood. The hair is rather long; and the tail short and of a blackish color. The eyes are round, sparkling, and full of anima

tion.

These animals, inhabitants chiefly of the Alps and the Pyrenees, are found in flocks of from four to eighty, and even a hundred in number, dispersed upon the crags of the mountains. They do not feed indiscriminately, but only on the most delicate herbage they can find.

Their sight is very penetrating, and their senses of smelling and hearing are remarkably acute. When the wind blows in a proper direction, they are said to be able to scent a man at the distance of a mile or upwards. Their voice somewhat resembles that of a hoarse