SUPPLEMENT.
Having been favoured with two drawings of this animal, we are now enabled to present a figure of the Babiroussa, (fig. 160.) and which we believe will give a tolerable idea of him, since it was taken with much care, and is a combination of both; the one of them we received from M. Sonnerat, which represented him in a standing posture, and the other lying on its belly, was sent us from England by Mr. Pennant, with the following label; “a Babiroussa from the island of Banda, drawn from nature;” it is of a blackish colour, grows to the size of a large hog, and its flesh is very good to eat.
THE CABIAI.
This American animal had never been seen in Europe until the Duke of Bouillon procured one to be sent to him from America. As this prince is curious in foreign animals,he has often done me the honour of inviting me to see them; and he has even given me several species for the advantage of this work. This animal (fig. 161.) was sent very young to him, and had not arrived at its full growth when the cold killed it. It is not a hog, as naturalists and travellers have pretended; it only resembles that animal by trifling marks, and differs from it by striking characters. The largest cabiai is scarcely as big as a hog of eighteen months growth. The head is shorter, and its mouth less; the eyes are larger, the number and form of the teeth are different, it wants a tail, and is web-footed; the hoofs before are divided into four parts, and those behind into three; between the divisions there is a prolongation of the skin, so that the feet, when opened in swimming, can beat a greater surface of water in which it frequently lives; it swims like an otter, seeks the same prey, and seizes the fish with its feet and teeth, and carries them to the banks to eat. It also eats fruits, corn, and sugar-canes. As its feet are broad and flat it often sits upon its hind ones. Its cry more resembles the braying of an ass than the grunting of a hog. It seldom stirs out but at night, and almost always in company without going far from the sides of thewater. It can find no safety by flight, from the length of its feet and the shortness of its legs. To escape its enemies it plunges into the water, and remains at the bottom so long that the hunters lose all hopes of seeing it again. It is fat, and the flesh is tender, but, like that of the badger, it tastes more like bad fish than good flesh; the head, however, is not bad, and this agrees with what is said of the badger, his fore parts are pretty good, while his hind ones taste like fish.
The cabiai is quiet and gentle; it is neither quarrelsome nor savage with other animals. It is easily tamed, comes at call, and willingly follows those who feed and treat it with kindness. It was fed at Paris with barley, sallad, and fruit, and was healthy while the weather kept warm. By its number of paps we should suppose that the females produce several young at a litter. We do not know how long they go with young, the time of their growth, nor, consequently, their length of life. The natives, or colonists, of Cayenne might inform us of these particulars, for it is very common in Guiana, as well as in Brasil, in Amazonia, and in all the lower countries of South America.
SUPPLEMENT.
We have been informed by M. de la Borde, that the Cabiai is a common animal in Guiana, and on the borders of the Amazon river; he says that the male and female always go together; that they avoid the habitations of men, and always live by the sides of rivers, into which they go whenever they are disturbed, swimming like hogs to a great distance, sometimes diving to the bottom, where they will remain a considerable time; that the natives frequently take them when very young, and bring them up in their houses, where they soon become familiar, and will eat bread, millet, and herbs, although they principally live on fish when in their wild state; that the females produce but one at a time; that they are perfectly harmless; and that their flesh is white and well tasted. Although this last fact may seem to contradict what we have formerly stated upon the authority of other authors yet it is by no means improbable that their flesh may be bad when in their wild state, from feeding on fish, and yet very good when they live on bread and grain.
As one of these animals lived some time in Paris I am of opinion they would propagate in our climate; and the more especially as I find the one I formerly alluded to was not killed by the cold, but that the winter had no particular effect upon it. I have since been informed that this animal, was confined in an upper room, from the window of which it jumped, and falling into a vessel of water was drowned.
Engraved for Barr’s Buffon
FIG. 162.Porcupine.
FIG. 164.Tendrac.FIG. 163.Coendou.
THE PORCUPINE.
The name given this animal leads to a supposition that it is a hog covered with thorny quills,[AE]when, in fact, it only resembles that animal by its grunting; in every other respect it differs from the hog as much as any other animal, both in its outward appearance and inferior conformation. Instead of a long head and ears, armed with tusks, and terminated with a snout; instead of cloven feet, furnished with hoofs like the hog; the porcupine has a short head like the beaver, two large incisive teeth in each jaw, no tusks or canine teeth, the upper lip divided like that of the hare, the ears round and flat, and the feet armed with claws. Instead of a large stomach, with an appendix in form of a cowl, the porcupine has only a single stomach, with a large cæcum gut. The parts of generation are not apparent, as in the boar, and its testicles are concealed in the groin. By all these marks, together with its short tail, long whiskers, and divided lip it approaches more to the hare or beaver than to the hog. The hedge-hog, indeed, who, like the porcupine, is covered with prickles, somewhat resembles the hog, for it has a long muzzle, terminated by a kind of snout; but all these resemblances being so very slight it is clear that the porcupine (fig. 162.) is a particular and different species from the hedge-hog, the beaver, the hare, or any other animal whatever.[AF]
[AE]This may be said of it in reference to its French, Italian, and Spanish appellation, but not in regard to its English one. In German too, its name conveys this idea;stachet-schweinliterallyswine with thorns.
[AE]This may be said of it in reference to its French, Italian, and Spanish appellation, but not in regard to its English one. In German too, its name conveys this idea;stachet-schweinliterallyswine with thorns.
[AF]It is probable that the resemblance of the flesh of this animal with that of the hog has contributed more to his having the name which he bears, than any supposed exterior or interior affinities between them.
[AF]It is probable that the resemblance of the flesh of this animal with that of the hog has contributed more to his having the name which he bears, than any supposed exterior or interior affinities between them.
Travellers and naturalists have almost unanimously declared this animal has the faculty of discharging its quills, and with such force as to wound its foes at a great distance; and that these prickly quills have the extraordinary property of penetrating farther into the flesh oftheir own accord and power, as soon as the point has made an entrance. This last circumstance is purely imaginary, without any foundation, and the first is as false as the second. The error seems to have arisen from this animal raising his prickles upright when he is irritated; and as some of them are only inserted into the skin by a small pellicle they easily fall off. We have had many living porcupines, but never saw them dart any of their quills, even though violently agitated. It is a matter of astonishment, therefore, that the gravest authors, both ancient and modern, as well as the most sensible travellers, should join in opinion respecting a circumstance so entirely false. Some affirm that they have been wounded by this sort of darting; others, assert that the quills are darted with such vengeance, as to pierce a plank at a great distance. The marvellous commonly is pleasingly believed, and increases in proportion to the number of hands it passes through. Truth, on the contrary, diminishes in the same degree; and in spite of the positive negative which I have placed on these two fictions, I am persuaded, that many future writers will assert that the porcupine darts his quills to a distance, and that when those quills are separated from thebody of the animal, they will of themselves, and with their own exertions, penetrate deeper into those bodies in which the point has entered.
However, in justice to Dr. Shaw, we must except him from the number of these credulous travellers; “Of all the number of porcupines (says he) which I have seen in Africa, I have never yet met with one, who could dart their quills, however strongly he was irritated; their common method of defence is to lie on one side, and when the enemy approaches very near, to rise suddenly and wound him with the points of the other.”
The porcupine, although originally a native of the hottest climates of Africa and India, lives and multiplies in colder countries, such as Persia, Spain, and Italy. Agricola says, that the porcupine had not been transported into Europe, much before his time. They are found in Spain, but more commonly in Italy, especially on the Appenine mountains, in the environs of Rome.
Pliny, and other naturalists, have said, after Aristotle, that the porcupine, like the bear, conceals himself during winter, and that they bring forth in thirty days. We have not had it in our power to verify these facts; and it issingular, that in Italy where this animal is common, and where there has ever been skilful philosophers and excellent observers of nature, that its history has never been written by any of them. Aldrovandus in speaking on this subject, has, like the rest, only copied Gesner; and the gentlemen of the academy, who have dissected eight of these animals, say very little that has any relation to their natural habits. We only learn from the testimonies of travellers, and persons who have kept them in menageries, that the porcupine in its domestic state, is neither savage nor furious, but only anxious for liberty; that with the assistance of its fore teeth, which are sharp and strong like those of the beaver, he easily cuts through his wooden prison. It is also known that he feeds willingly on fruits, cheese, and crumbs of bread; that in his wild state, he lives upon roots and wild grain; that when he can enter a garden he makes great havock[AG], eating the herbs, roots, fruit, &c. that he becomes fat, like most other animals, toward the end of summer;and that the flesh of this animal, although a little insipid, is tolerable eating.
[AG]The porcupine is a perfect scourge to the gardens of the Cape of Good Hope; he commits great ravages in the plantations of cabbage, and other kitchen herbs. The wild herb of which this animal is most fond, is theCalla Ethiopica, which however, is so acrid, according to Sparrman, that the root or the leaves applied to any part of the body will raise a blister.
[AG]The porcupine is a perfect scourge to the gardens of the Cape of Good Hope; he commits great ravages in the plantations of cabbage, and other kitchen herbs. The wild herb of which this animal is most fond, is theCalla Ethiopica, which however, is so acrid, according to Sparrman, that the root or the leaves applied to any part of the body will raise a blister.
When the form, substance, and organization of the prickles of the porcupine are considered, they are found to be tubes to which only vanes are wanting to make them real feathers. They strike together and make a noise as the animal walks; he can easily erect them in the same manner as the peacock spreads the feathers of his tail, and as easily smooths them again by the contraction of the cuticular muscle. This muscle, therefore, has the same power, and is nearly of the same formation in the porcupine as in some birds.
THE COENDOU.
In every article we have to treat of we always meet with more errors to confute than facts to relate. This arises from the history of animals having been only written of late by prejudiced persons, who take the list of their little systems for the genuine register of Nature. There are not any animals of the warm climates of the old continent existing in America, and reciprocally there are not any of the South American animals to be met with under the torrid zone of Africa and Asia. The porcupine,as already observed, is a native of the hot countries of the old world, and having never been found in the new, they have not hesitated to give his name to animals which seemed to resemble him, and particularly to that which we have now under consideration. On the other hand, the Coendou (fig. 163.) of America has been transported to the East Indies; and Piso, who probably was not acquainted with the porcupine, has made Bontius, who only speaks of animals in the southern parts of Asia, engrave the coendou of America under the name and description of the true porcupine; so that, at the first view, we should firmly believe, that this animal existed equally in America and in Asia. It is easy, however, to discover, with a little attention, that Piso, who is in this, as well as in most parts of his work, only a plagiarist of Marcgrave, has not only copied his figure of the coendou, into his history of Brasil, but has copied it again for the work of Bontius, of which he was the editor. Therefore, though we find the figure of the coendou in Bontius, we must not conclude, that it exists in Java, or in any other part of the East Indies, nor take this figure for that of the porcupine, which, in fact, the coendou only resembles by its quills or prickles.
It is to Ximenes, and afterwards to Hernandes, that we owe the first knowledge of this animal, which they have indicated under the Mexican name ofhoitztlacuatzin. Thetlacuatzinis the opossum and thehoitztlacuatzinshould be translated thebristlyorspinous opossum. This name has been misapplied, for these animals resemble each other very little. Marcgrave has not adopted this Mexican denomination, but calls this animalcuandu. The only thing we can reproach Marcgrave with, is his not having known, that the cuandu of Brasil was the same animal as the hoitztlacuatzin of Mexico, especially as his description and figure agree with those of Hernandes; and as Laët, the editor and commentator of Marcgrave expressly says, that the spiny tlacuatzin of Ximenes, and the cuandu, are probably the same animal. By collecting the scattered accounts of travellers there appears to be two varieties of these animals, which the naturalists, after Piso, have inserted in their lists as two different species, namely, the great and the little coendou: but what immediately proves the error, or negligence of Piso, is, that although he describes these coendous in two separate and distinct articles, and seems to look on them as different species, he represents both by the same figure:which, we think, sufficient foundation to pronounce them the same animal. There are likewise other naturalists who have not only made two species of the great and little coendou but have also separated the hoitztlacuatzin, and given all three as different animals. I own, indeed, that although it is probable, the coendou and the hoitztlacuatzin are the same animal, yet this identity is not so certain as that of the great and little coendou.
However that may be, the coendou is not the porcupine. He is much smaller; his head and muzzle shorter; he has no tuft on its head nor is his upper lip divided; his quills are proportionally shorter and much finer; his tail is long, and that of the porcupine very short: he is carnivorous rather than frugivorous, and endeavours to surprize birds, small animals, and poultry, while the porcupine only feeds upon herbs, roots, and fruits. He sleeps all the day like the hedge-hog, and only stirs out in the night: he climbs up trees, and hangs on branches by his tail. All travellers agree, that his flesh is very good eating. He is easily tamed, and commonly lives in high places. These animals are found over all America, from Brasil and Guiana, to Louisiana and the southern parts of Canada; whilethe porcupine is only to be found in the hottest parts of the Old Continent.
By conferring the name of porcupine on the coendou, the same faculties have been attributed to him, especially that of shooting his quills. It is astonishing that naturalists and travellers should agree on this circumstance, and that Piso, who ought to have been less superstitious, as he was a physician, should gravely assert, that the quills of the coendou pierce into the flesh by their own power, and penetrate into the body even to the most internal viscera. Ray is the only person who has denied these circumstances, although they evidently appear to be absurd. How many absurdities have been exposed by men of sense, which, nevertheless, are affirmed by other men who think they are endowed with a greater degree of understanding!
SUPPLEMENT.
To our former account of this animal we may now add that there are two species of it in Guiana, the one larger than the other; the former weigh from twelve to fifteen pounds, andthe latter about six: their principal food is the leaves of trees, in the holes of which the females bring forth their young; they commonly bring forth two at a time, and yet they are not very numerous. The negroes are very fond of their flesh and describe it as extremely good. From the account of M. de la Borde they are solitary animals, except in the season of love, when they go in pairs; they seldom venture to appear during the day, and they find a most inveterate enemy in the tiger who destroys them at every opportunity.
THE URSON.
This animal has never yet received a distinct name: placed by Nature in the desert part of North America, it exists in independence far distant from man, and has not even received from him a name, which is the first mark of an animal’s subjection. Hudson having discovered the country where he inhabits, we shall give him a name which has an affinity with his first master, and which, at the same time, indicates his sharp bristly nature. It was likewise necessary to give hima name, that he might not be confounded with the porcupine or coendou, which he resembles in some few characters, but so materially differs from them in other respects that he ought to be looked upon as a different species. He is also a native of the northern climates, while the others particularly belong to that of the south.
Edward, Ellis, and Catesby, have all spoken of this animal: the figures given by the two first agree with ours, and we have no doubt of their being the same animal. We are likewise strongly inclined to believe, that the figure and description Seba has given, under the name ofthe remarkable porcupine of the East Indies, and which afterwards Klein, Brisson, and Linnæus, indicated in their methodical lists by characters extracted from Seba, may be the same animal as we are now treating of. This would not, as we have already observed, be the only time that Seba has spoken of American animals as belonging to the East Indies. However we cannot be so positive with respect to this as we have been with many other animals; all that we can say is, that the resemblances appear to be very great, and the differences very slight, and that these differences may possibly be only varieties between individuals,or such as distinguish the males from the females.
Theursonmight be called thebristly beaver, he being of the same country, the same size, and the same form of body. He has, like the beaver, two long, strong, and sharp incisive teeth at the end of each jaw. Besides his prickles, which are short, and almost covered with hair, like the beaver, he has a double coat, the first consists of long and soft hairs, and the second of a down, which is still more soft and smooth. In the young ursons the prickles are proportionably larger, more apparent, and the hair shorter and scarcer than in the adults.
This animal avoids moist places, and is even fearful of wetting himself. They make their habitations under the roots of great hollow trees, sleep very much, and chiefly feed upon the bark of juniper-bushes. In winter the snow serves them for drink; and in summer they lap water like a dog. The savages eat their flesh, and strip the bristles off the hide, which they make use of instead of pins and needles, and clothe themselves with the fur.
THE TANREC AND THE TENDRAC.
TheTanrecs, orTendracs, are small animals of the East Indies, which resemble a little our hedge-hogs, but differ from them sufficiently to constitute a distinct species. This is strongly proved by its not rolling itself up in the shape of a ball, like the hedge-hog; and besides the tanrecs are found at Madagascar, where there are also hedge-hogs of the same species as ours, which are not called there tanrecs butsoras.
There appears to be two species of tanrecs, or, perhaps, two different races; the first, which is nearly as large as our hedge-hog, has its muzzle proportionably longer than the second; its ears are also more apparent, and is more furnished with prickles than the second, to which we have given the name of tendrac to distinguish it from the first. The tendrac (fig. 164.) is not bigger than a large rat; its muzzle and ears are shorter than those of the tanrec, which is also covered with shorter prickles, but they are as numerous as those ofthe hedge-hog; the tendrac, on the contrary, has them only on the head, neck, and withers, the rest of the body being covered with a coarse hair resembling the bristles of a hog.
These small animals, whose legs are short, move but slowly; they grunt, and wallow in the mire like hogs; they are chiefly in creeks and harbours of salt water; they multiply in great numbers, and dig themselves holes in the ground, whither they retire and sleep for several months. During this torpid state their hair falls off, which grows again upon their revival. They are usually very fat, and although their flesh is insipid, soft, and spongy, yet the Indians consider it as a very great delicacy.
Engraved for Barr’s Buffon
FIG. 165.Giraffe.
FIG. 166.Two toed Sloth.FIG. 167.Tarsier.
THE GIRAFFE, OR CAMELOPARD.
The Giraffe (fig. 165.) is one of the tallest, most useful, most beautiful, and harmless animals in nature. The enormous disproportion of his legs, the fore ones being as long again as those behind, is a great obstacle to the exercise of his powers. His motion is waddling, slow, and stiff; he can neither fly from his enemies in a free state, nor serve his master in a domestic one. The species is not very numerous, and has always been confined to the desarts of Ethiopia, and to some other provinces of Southern Africa and India. As these countries were unknown to the Greeks, Aristotle makes no mention of this animal. Pliny speaks of it, and Oppian describes it in a manner that is far from equivocal. “The camelopardalis (says this author) has some resemblance to the camel; it has a spotted skin like the panther, and a neck as long as the camel; its head and ears are small, its feet broad, and its legs long, but the last are very unequal, the fore ones being much longer than those behind, which are so short, that when the animal is standing it has somewhat the appearance of a dog sitting upon his posteriors. There are two prominences upon the head just between the ears, which resemble two small and straight horns. Its mouth is like the stag’s; its teeth small and white; its eyes full of fire; its tail short, and furnished with black hairs at the end.” By adding to this description of Oppian those of Heliodorus and Strabo, we shall have a sufficient idea of the camelopard. “The ambassadors of Ethiopia (says Heliodorus) brought an animal about the sizeof a camel, whose skin was speckled with beautiful and glossy spots, the hinder parts were much lower than the anterior; the neck was slender, although rising from a tolerably thick body; the head resembled that of the camel, and in size was scarce double that of the ostrich; the eyes appeared tinctured with different colours. The motion of this animal was different from that of all other quadrupeds, who in walking lift their legs diagonally, that is, the right leg before with the left leg behind; but the camelopard goes naturally in an amble, with its two right or its two left legs pacing together. It is a gentle animal, and may be conducted any where with a small cord tied round its head.” “There is (says Strabo) a large animal in Ethiopia calledcamelopardalis, although it bears no resemblance to the panther, for its skin is not spotted in the same manner; the spots of the panther are circular, and those of this animal are long, and nearly resembling those of the fawn, or young stag. The posterior parts of its body are much lower than the anterior; so that towards the rump it is not higher than the ox, while its shoulders are higher than those of the camel. From this disproportion it cannot run very swift. This animal is gentle, does no injury, and feeds upongrass, leaves, and vegetables.” Among the moderns, the first good description we meet with is that of Belon. “I saw (says he) an animal at the castle of Cairo, which is commonly calledzurnapa; the Latins anciently stiled itcamelopardalis, a name compounded of leopard and camel, for it is sprinkled with spots like the first, and has a long neck like the latter. It is a very beautiful animal, as gentle as a lamb, and more sociable than any other wild beast. Its head is almost like that of the stag, excepting its size; on it are two small horns, about half a foot long, covered with hair; those of the male are longer than those of the female. They both have ears as large as those of a cow, and the tongue black, like that of the ox; it has no incisive teeth in the upper jaw; its neck is long, straight, and slender; its horns round; its legs thin and long, but so low behind that the animal appears to be sitting; its feet are like those of the ox; its tail, which hangs down almost to its hoof, is round, and the hair on it is three times as thick as that of a horse; the colour of the hair on the body is white and red; its manner of running is like the camel’s; when it runs its two fore feet go together; it lies on its belly, and has a callous substance on the breastand joints like that animal. When it grazes it is obliged to spread its fore legs very wide, and even then feeds with great difficulty, therefore it rather chooses to feed on the leaves of trees than to graze in the fields, especially as its neck is exceedingly long, and can reach to a great height.”
Gillius’s description seems still better than that of Belon. “I have seen (says Gillius, chap. ix.) three camelopards at Cairo; on their heads are two horns six inches long, and in the middle of their forehead a tubercle rises to about the height of two inches, which appears like a third horn. This animal is sixteen feet high when he holds up his head. Its neck alone is seven feet, and it is twenty-two feet long from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail; its fore and hind legs are nearly of an equal height; but the thighs before are so long in comparison to those behind, that its back inclines like the roof of an house. Its whole body is sprinkled with large yellow spots which are nearly of a square form. Its feet are cloven like the ox; its upper lip hangs over the under; its tail is slender, with hair on it to the very point; it ruminates like the ox, and, like that animal, feeds upon herbage; its mane extends from the top of the head to theback. When it walks it seems as if its legs and flanks on both sides were alternately lame; and when it grazes, or drinks, it is obliged to spread its fore legs prodigiously wide.”
Gesner affirms, upon the authority of Belon, that this animal sheds its horns like the deer; but I must confess that I never could find such a fact asserted in that author. He merely says, as above, that the horns of the camelopard are covered with hair; and he only speaks in one other place of that animal, namely, when treating of the axis, where he says, “The camelopard has a white skin, with broad spots sprinkled over it, which, though red, are not so deep as those of the axis.” This fact, which however I have not been able to meet with in any part of Belon’s work, would be of great importance to decide the nature of the giraffe, for if it sheds its horns every year it belongs to the stag kind; and, on the contrary, if its horns are permanent, it must be considered as belonging to the ox or goat species; but, without this precise knowledge, we cannot assert, as our nomenclators have done, that the giraffe is of the stag genus; and we are not a little surprised that Hasselquist, who has given a very long and dry description of this animal, has been silent as to its nature. After havingmethodically, that is to say, scholastically, heaped together a hundred useless and trifling characters, he does not say a single word on the substance of the horns, and leaves us ignorant whether they are solid or hollow, or whether they fall off or not. I refer to the description of Hasselquist, not for its utility, but for its singularity, and to excite travellers to make use of their own knowledge, and not to view objects through the spectacles of other men.
In the year 1764 a drawing and an account of the giraffe was sent to the Academy of Sciences, by which we are informed that this animal is not particular to Ethiopia, but is also found in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope.[AH]The drawing was so badly executed that no use can be made of it,[AI]but as the account contains a sort of description we have given it a place. “In an excursion from the Cape, made in 1762, we travelled about two hundred leagues up the country, and met with thecamelopardalis, a drawing of which we have subjoined. Its body resembles thatof an ox, and its head and neck those of the horse. All we met with were of a white colour, sprinkled with brown spots. They have two horns on the head, about a foot long, and their feet are hoofed. We killed two of these animals, and sent their skins to Europe, the several measurements of which were as follows: the length of the head one foot eight inches; the height, from the bottom of the fore foot to the withers, ten feet; and from the withers to the top of the head seven feet; in all seventeen feet in height. The length from the withers to the reins is five feet six inches, and from thence to the tail one foot six; the length, therefore, of the whole body is seven feet, and the height, from the hind feet to the reins, eight feet five inches. The great disproportion in the height and length of this animal seems to prevent its being of any service. It feeds on the leaves of trees, and when it wants to drink, or take any thing off the ground, it is obliged to kneel with its fore legs.”
[AH]Vaillant also, in his travels into the interior parts of Africa, asserts, that he met with giraffes in very great numbers.
[AH]Vaillant also, in his travels into the interior parts of Africa, asserts, that he met with giraffes in very great numbers.
[AI]This we have also obviated, our figure being from a drawing taken by M. Vaillant from life.
[AI]This we have also obviated, our figure being from a drawing taken by M. Vaillant from life.
In inspecting the accounts travellers have given of the giraffe, I find they all agree that it can reach with its head to the height of sixteen or seventeen feet when standing erect, and that the fore legs are as high again as the hind ones, so that it seems as if it was seated upon its crupper. They likewise agree that it cannotrun very swift, by reason of this disproportion; that it is very gentle, and that by this quality, other habits, and even by the shape of the body, it partakes more of the nature of the camel than of any other animal; that it is among the number of ruminating animals, and, like them, is deficient of the incisive teeth in its upper jaw. By the testimonies of some travellers we also find that the giraffe is to be met with in the southern parts of Africa, as well as in those of Asia.
It is very evident, from what we have mentioned, that the giraffe is a peculiar species, and totally different from every other animal. If we would refer it to any it should rather be to the camel than the stag, or the ox. It is true the giraffe has two small horns, and the camel none; but they resemble each other so much in other respects that I am not surprised at some travellers having given it the name of theIndian camel. Besides, we are ignorant of the substance of the horns of the giraffe, and, consequently, we know not if in that part he approaches nearer to the stag than to the ox; and, possibly, they may be of a substance different from either; they may be composed of united hairs like those of the rhinoceros, or of a substance and texture peculiar to themselves.The reasons which have induced nomenclators to rank the giraffe with the stag kind, seem to have arisen from the pretended passage of Belon, quoted by Gesner, which indeed would be decisive if it were true. They seem also to have misunderstood what authors have said of the hair of those horns; they have imagined that the writers have said the horns of the giraffe were covered with hair, like the fresh-sprung horns of the stag, and from thence concluded they were of the same nature; but, in fact, the giraffe’s horns are only surrounded with coarse hair, and not covered with a down, or velvet, like those of the stag. This circumstance tends to support the probability that the horns of the giraffe are composed of united hair, like those of the rhinoceros, and their bluntness at the extremities greatly favours this idea. If, again, we consider that the elk, rein-deer, stag, roe-buck, &c. have their horns always divided into branches or antlers, and that, on the contrary, the horns of the giraffe are only simple, and consist of one stem, we must be convinced that they are not of the same nature, unless analogy be entirely violated. The tubercle is in the middle of the head, which, according to travellers, seem to form a third horn, is another strongcircumstance in favour of this opinion. The two horns which are not pointed, but blunt at the ends, are, perhaps, only tubercles somewhat longer than the former. All travellers also uniformly inform us that the female giraffes have horns like the males, but that they are smaller. If this animal were really of the stag kind, analogy would here also be violated, for of all animals of that genus there is only the female rein-deer that has horns, the reason of which we have before mentioned. On the other hand, as the giraffe cannot graze but with great difficulty on account of the excessive height of its fore legs; as it chiefly and almost solely feeds on the leaves and buds of trees, it may be presumed, that the horns, which are the most apparent superfluity of the organic particles derived from the food, would be analogous to the nature of the food, as well as the horns of the stag. Time will confirm the propriety of one or other of these conjectures. One word more in Hasselquist’s description would have fixed these doubts, and clearly determined the genus of this animal. But scholars, who have only the gamut of their master in their heads, or rather in their pockets, cannot avoid making blunders and essential omissions, because they entirely renounceinvestigation, which should guide every observer of Nature, and view her productions through the false medium of arbitrary method, which only serves to hinder them from reflecting on the objects they meet with, and to calculate the description of them on a bad and erroneous model. As, in reality, all objects differ materially from each other, so they ought all to be treated differently; one single striking character happily discovered, is sometimes decisive, and often conveys more knowledge of a subject than a thousand trifling indexes. Whenever they are numerous they consequently become equivocal and common, and then they are at least superfluous, if not prejudicial, to the real knowledge of Nature, who sports with the forms we prescribe, soars above all method, and can only be perceived by the penetrating eye of Genius.
SUPPLEMENT.
From M. Allemand we received a letter, dated October, 1766, containing a number of excellent observations respecting this animal, and from which the following is an extract:“I am in possession of a stuffed giraffe, and since you expressed a desire to know the nature of its horns I cut one of them off, and send it to you; it is, however, necessary to observe, that it belonged to a very young one. I received it from the governor of the Cape, who informed me that it was killed as it was lying by the side of its mother; it was about six feet in height, and its horns did not exceed two inches and a half. These horns were covered all over with skin and hairs; the base was more than an inch broad, forming an obtuse cone; and to be certain whether it was solid or hollow I sawed it through longitudinally with that part of the skull to which it adhered, and I found its texture to resemble that of the horns of the stag more than any other animal. If indeed I were positive that a horn which was sent me as belonging to a giraffe did really belong to that animal, I should not hesitate to say there was no difference between them, except in the figure, this being straight, and without branches. With respect to the legs I conceive their disproportion in length has been greatly magnified, for the difference between the fore and hind ones of this young animal is very slight.”
The horns of the giraffe being solid, and their substance similar to those of the stag, there could be no doubt of his ranking in the same genus, especially if he sheds his horns annually of which, however, we are still uncertain; but we may safely assert he ought to be separated from that of the ox, and all those animals whose horns are hollow; and, indeed, until the contrary be proved to be the fact, we cannot do otherwise than consider the giraffe as a peculiar species, in the same manner as the elephant, rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, forming a species which has no collaterals, and which seems to be a privilege conferred by Nature simply on those which are of the largest magnitude.
In the description of M. Allemand we freely acknowledge that he has displayed much accuracy, and a perfect intimacy with the subject; but yet I apprehend that the longest of the horns he did me the favour to transmit does not belong to a giraffe, for the short one is very thick, and that quite thin, comparatively with their different lengths. In an anonymous description which I received from Holland of this animal it is stated, that the horns of a full-grown giraffe are a foot long, and as thick as a man’s arm; according to which the horn we are now considering being six inches long, itought to be full twice as thick, as it is, in reality; and, indeed, it so perfectly resembles the first horns of a young stag, that we can have little doubt of its belonging to that animal.
As to the nature of the giraffe’s horns I feel no hesitation in coinciding with the opinion of M. Allemand. The protuberance on the front is osseous, and may be considered as a third horn; and as the horns adhere to the cranium, they should be considered as osseous prolongations of the head. In short the horn of the giraffe appears to be a bone, differing from that of the ox by its covering, the latter being entirely surrounded with a horny substance, and the former with hair and skin.