1902.] on New Mammal from Central Africa. 49 



condition as those of a giraffe about two-thirds grown, and this, and 

 other facts, pointed to the conclusion that the skull belonged to 

 an animal at that stage of development. An important fact was, that 

 the canine teeth in the lower jaw of the Okapi were bifoliate, and the 

 circumstance that the giraffe was the only other known animal in 

 which this peculiarity was to be found was strong evidence of their 

 affinity. The teeth in the skull at the Museum were only milk-teeth, 

 but the bifoliation was detected in the permanent teeth concealed in 

 the bone below. The Helladotherium, remains of which had been 

 found in Greece, and to which Sir Harry Johnston had compared the 

 Okapi, differed too much to justify naturalists in placing them in the 

 same genus, though doubtless they were nearly related. The Okapi 

 had a black line down the wrist, not quite in the middle, and round 

 the actual wrist was a ring of black. Very few antelopes had any- 

 thing of the kind, but it was found in some goats. Such stripings 

 were difficult to account for, our knowledge of elusive optics, of 

 bright markings which rendered animals invisible even in broad 

 daylight to a person looking straight at them, being as yet insuf- 

 ficient to explain them. In conclusion, the lecturer discussed the 

 types of horn-structure found in different animals, with reference to 

 the question whether the Okapi was primitive in not having horns, 

 or whether his ancestors had had them and lost thera. The facts, 

 he said, scarcely admitted of this question being answered definitely 

 eitl er way, but he himself was inclined to think that the ancestors 

 of the Okapi had never had horns of any size, and that the Okapi 

 and the giraffe stood near the beginning of horn development in the 

 Ruminant Ungulates. 



Vol. XVlI. (No 90 / 



