XI THE OKAPI 305 
which will probably prove to belong to a distinct genus. It has 
five horns, the additional pair being placed above the ears. 
Sir Harry Johnston has quite recently made known another 
genus of Giraffidae living in the Semliki forest, Belgian Congo 
district. The skin and two skulls, as well as the bones of the 
feet, are known from specimens sent by Sir Harry Johnston to 
the Natural History Museum, and briefly described to the Zoo- 
logical Society by Professor Ray Lankester.' This creature, of 
which the native name is “ Okapi,” is proposed to be called 
Ocapia johnstoni. The first actual specimens which reached this 
country were two bandoliers made from the skin of the flanks, 
which were striped black and white, and were not unnaturally 
held to be portions of the skin of a new species of Zebra. The 
animal is of about the size of a Sable Antelope, and the back 
and sides are of a rich brown colour; it is only the fore- and 
hind-limbs which are striped, the striping being longitudinal, 7.e. 
parallel with the long axis of the body. The head is Giraffe- 
like, but there are no external horns; wisps of curled hairs 
seem to represent the vestiges of the horns of other Giraffes. 
The tail is rather short, and the neck is rather thick and short. 
The skull is clearly Giraffine. The basicranial axis is straight, 
and the fontanelle in the lachrymal region is very large. Upon 
the frontal bones near their parietal border is a large boss on 
either side, which presumably represents the horn core or “os 
cornu. On the mandible the great length of the diastema 
between the incisors and premolars is a Giraffine characteristic. 
The Okapi lives in pairs in the deepest recesses of the forest. 
We are acquainted with a few extinct forms, belonging to 
Goirafia, which are extra-African in range. GG. sivalensis is from 
the Phocene of the Siwalik Hills in India, G. attica from Greece. 
These remains, however, do not include the top of the skull, so that 
it is doubtful whether their horns were as in (. camelopardalis. 
A closely-allied genus is the extinct Samotheriwm. This 
flourished in Miocene times, and its remains have been found in 
the Greek island of Samos. The neck and limbs are shorter than 
in the Giraffe, and the horns, longer than in Giraffa, are placed 
just above the orbit upon the frontal bones alone, instead of 
upon the boundary line of frontals and parietals as in Giraffa. In 
several ways, therefore, the existing Giraffe is a more modified or 
1 See also Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1901, ii. p. 3. 
WAGE 1D: xX 
