equal
to those possessed by any of the other Ungulata of that continent. It would
seem, therefore, that some of these other Ungulates ought to have developed
in a similar manner as to the neck, under pain of being starved, when the
long neck of the giraffe was in its incipient stage.

To this criticism it has been objected that different kinds of animals are
preserved, in the struggle for life, in very different ways, and even {26}
that "high reaching" may be attained in more modes than one--as, for
example, by the trunk of the elephant. This is, indeed, true, but then none
of the African Ungulata[21] have, nor do they appear ever to have had, any
proboscis whatsoever; nor have they acquired such a development as to allow
them to rise on their hind limbs and graze on trees in a kangaroo-attitude,
nor a power of climbing, nor, as far as known, any other modification
tending to compensate for the comparative shortness of the neck. Again, it
may perhaps be said that leaf-eating forms are exceptional, and that
therefore the struggle to attain high branches would not affect many
Ungulates. But surely, when these severe droughts necessary for the theory
occur, the ground vegetation is supposed to be exhausted; and, indeed, the
giraffe is quite capable of feeding from off the ground. So that, in these
cases, the other Ungulata _must_ have taken to leaf eating or have starved,
and thus must have had any accidental long-necked varieties favoured and
preserved exactly as the long-necked varieties of the giraffe are supposed
to have been favoured and preserved.

The argument as to the different modes of preservation has been very well
put by Mr. Wallace,[22] in reply to the objection that "colour, being
dangerous, should not exist in nature." This objection appears similar to
mine; as I say that a giraffe neck, being needful, there should be many
animals with it, while the objector noticed by Mr. Wallace says, "a dull
colour being needful, all animals should be so coloured." And Mr. Wallace
shows in reply how porcupines, tortoises and mussels, very hard-coated
bombadier beetles, stinging insects and nauseous-tasted caterpillars, can
afford to be brilliant by the various means of active defence or passive
protection they possess, other than obscure colouration. He says "the {27}
attitudes of some insects may also protect them, as the habit of turning up
the tail by the harmless rove-beetles (Staphylinidae) no doubt leads other
an