Abstract
A PIECE of tanned giraffe-skin in my possession, which I intend to present to the British Museum, indicates, apparently, an undescribed race of the netted giraffe (Giraffa reticulata) of Somaliland and British East Africa. That species is characterised by the markings taking the form of a coarse network of narrow white lines on a liver-red ground, the dark meshes being large and quadrangular on the neck, but becoming smaller and more irregular in shape on the body. There may be small white spots in the centre of the dark patches, which are otherwise uniformly coloured, even in adult bulls. In the piece of skin referred to above, which is from the forepart of the body, and came from British âprobably the Kenia districtâthe white lines are rather wider and the dark areas smaller and brownish rufous, with a tinge of blackness, and a distinct blackish streak or star in the centre. For this giraffe, which in a slight degree tends to connect reticulata with the eastern forms of camelopardalis, the name G. reticulata nigrescens will be appropriate.
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LYDEKKER, R. Two Undescribed Giraffes. Nature 87, 484 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/087484c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/087484c0
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