Judging from all evidence now available, it seems that the Giraffes of to-day represent the midway stage of an effort to develop several species from the parent stock, the Three-Horned Giraffe, which is the species here represented. The existing forms, including all species and subspecies, intergrade and run together in a manner that is fairly bewildering; but if the Giraffes could remain uninfluenced by man for a sufficiently long period the probabilities are that the species now branching off would be clearly established.
The oldest, the best-known and the most common Giraffe is the three-horned species, found from central Uganda southward. The five-horned variety meets the former in Uganda, and occurs from that region westward to the edge of the great equatorial forest, and on westward even to Lake Tchad, and the lower Niger Valley. Excepting in Uganda, Kahma's country, and a few other protected districts, the Giraffe is now rare, particularly throughout the regions that are accessible to hunters. Thousands of these wonderful creatures have been killed by hunters, both white and black, solely for the sake of seeing them dead, and leaving them as prey to the hyænas and hunting-dogs. It seems to be beyond the power of most men who can shoot to see living wild animals, no matter how large or wonderful, without desiring to reduce them to carcasses, fit only for scavengers.
The Eland, (_Taurotragus oryx_), is the largest and most imposing of all antelopes. As might be inferred from its great size, it is now so nearly extinct that it has almost disappeared from the lists of dealers in wild animals. The fine young pair now in the Antelope House was presented by the Duke of Bedford, from his famous animal collection at Woburn Park. The fully adult female is the gift of Mr. C. Ledyard Blair.
Of Elands there are two well-marked species. That of eastern and southern Africa, here represented, was once numerous on many of the fertile plains of the great plateau now known as Rhodesia, and in fact throughout nearly the whole of the uplands of eastern Africa, from the Cape to the Sahara. Unfortunately, however, white hunters and modern firearms have reduced the countless thousands of the great herds to numbers so small that the capture and exportation of Elands have practically ceased.