and Mr. Eriksson discovered and broug-ht out from 

 the depths of the Kongo forest the skin of a hitherto 

 unknown animal, cloven-hoofed and striped Hke a 

 zebra on limbs and hind-quarters. This animal, called 

 the "okapi" by the natives of the Kongo forest, was found 

 to possess characters more nearly resembling the giraffe than 

 any other living animal, and Professor Ray Lankester has 

 therefore constituted it a separate genus, "Ocapia^\ in the 

 family to which the giraffe belongs. 



These two strange survivals of a prehistoric race differ 

 from their nearest living relatives in having neither 

 true horns nor antlers. The giraffe posesses, hov/ever, 

 a pair of short, erect, permanent bony processes at- 

 tached, as may be seen in the skeleton, partly to 

 the frontal and partly to the parietal bones, not to the for- 

 mer only, as in the true horned ruminants. These "horns" 

 in miniature are completely covered by the skin of the fore- 

 head and are surmounted by a tuft of strong, bristly hairs. 

 In front of them is a median proti'uberance of the bone in 

 the form of a rounded knob, increasing with age, especially 

 in the male, to a size sufficiently prominent to be spoken of 

 as the third horn. 



In height, the giraffe exceeds all existing mammals. Our 

 skeleton, that of a female, measures 12 feet, but the males 

 often reach a height of 16 or even 18 feet. This exceptional 

 elevation is chiefly due to the immense length of neck and 

 the disproportionate height of the fore-quarters. The ex- 

 treme elongation of the neck is brought about by the length- 

 ening out of the seven cervical vertebrae. Thus the motion 

 of the neck is rendered ridiculously stiff and awkward — 

 "swaying like masts upon a moving sea", as they are de- 

 scribed by Schillings, the German field naturalist and hunter. 



The feet terminate in a small, daintily formed, divided 

 hoof, but the accessory toes found in other ruminants are 

 entirely wanting. The head is small and the eyes are large 

 and lustrous, giving to the animal a peculiarly gentle ap- 



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