in a good situation, where nothing was wanting for their comfort. With the view of preparing them for the temperature of the country to which they are to be removed, I have not thought it advisable that they should be clothed. During the last week the cold has been much greater than they have hitherto experienced; but, thanks to the kindness of Mr. Bourchier, they have every attention that can be desired.

"These four giraffes, three males and one female, are so interesting and so beautiful, that I shall exert myself to the utmost to be useful to them. They are capable of walking for six hours a-day without the slightest fatigue."

M. Thibaut and five Nubian attendants accompanied these beautiful animals to England in the Manchester steam vessel. By this vessel they arrived in England on the 23d of May; and the early part of the next morning they walked to their final destination, the gardens in the Regent's Park. They proceeded quietly along, led by halters, and accompanied by M. Thibaut and their African attendants, and were perfectly gentle

and docile. Few persons at that early hour were abroad, but those who met this strange cavalcade were lost in wonder and astonishment, and gazed with incredulous eyes on these four majestic creatures, who moved their graceful necks from time to time to their full extent. The attendants, dressed in the costume of their country, each leading an animal, met also with a full share of admiration.

When they reached their future home, they entered the gardens very quietly, neither disturbed by strangers, nor by the novelty of their position. Mr. Davis says that he cannot consider the giraffe as a timid animal, for, when led out by its keepers, the objects which caught its attention did not create the least alarm; but it evinced an ardent desire to approach whatever it saw: no animal was bold enough to stand and suffer the giraffe to come near it. Its docile, gentle disposition leads it to be friendly, and even playful, with such as are confined with it; a noise will rouse its attention, but not excite fear. The giraffe is extremely fond of sweets, and those in

the Regent's Park will follow their keeper up and down, if he has a lump of sugar in his hand, and endeavour to get at it by insinuating their long curling tongue between his fingers. They are fed principally on the best hay, placed in high racks; they like a carrot, and are very fond of onions.

The public are particularly requested not to allow these delicately-feeding creatures to share in the cakes and fruit of their grosser neighbours, for fear of their being injured. They look anxiously, however, at flowers, or anything green that may be observable; and a lady, one day, standing more within the giraffe's reach than she was aware of, was exceedingly surprised to see him stretch out his graceful neck, and help himself to a large rose that was in her bonnet. We have already stated that the one in the Jardin des Plantes was very fond of this flower.

Captain Harris, in his "Wild Sports of South Africa," gives an animated account of hunting these beautiful creatures. He at one time came on a herd of thirty-two, who were quietly browsing in a mimosa grove. After a discharge of his gun,

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they bounded away in great alarm, clearing the ground by a succession of "frog-like" hops, soon leaving him in the rear. The speed of his horse enabled him to overtake them, as the sand of a small river greatly retarded their mode of progress. After a detail too painful to relate, he killed the stately bull giraffe, the leader of the harmless flock; but not until it had received seventeen discharges of the deadly rifle. "This was not," he says, a matter of astonishment when I contemplated the massive frame before me, seeming as though it had been cast in a mould of brass; and protected by a hide of an inch and half in thickness, it was no longer matter of astonishment that a bullet discharged from a distance of eighty or ninety yards, should have been attended with little effect upon such amazing strength. The extreme length from the crown of the elegantly moulded head to the hoof of this animal, was eighteen feet; the whole being equally divided into body, legs, and neck. We all feasted heartily upon the flesh, which, although highly scented at this season with the rank mokaala, or kameel-doorn blossoms, was

far from despicable. The motion of the giraffe reminded me rather of the pitching of a ship, or the rolling of a rocking-horse, than of anything living; and the remarkable gait is rendered still more automaton-like, by the switching at regular intervals of the long black tail, which is invariably curled above the back, and by the corresponding action of the neck, swinging as it does like a pendulum, and literally imparting to this animal the appearance of a piece of machinery. The senses of sight, smell, and hearing, are acute and delicate. The giraffe is by no means a common animal, even at its head-quarters. While we were encamped on the banks of a small stream, a giraffe was killed by a lion whilst in the act of drinking, at no great distance from our waggons. It was a noisy affair, but an inspection of the scene on which it had occurred proved that the giant strength of the victim had been paralyzed in an instant.

"Authors have asserted that the king of beasts is sometimes carried fifteen or twenty miles, riding proudly' on the back of the giraffe; but, notwith