342 HOOFED ANIMALS 



earning the animal, they gave him to understand that the 

 creature was like a mule with a zebra's skin. Arriving at a 

 European station, the Belgian officers admitted that they 

 had seen some such animal, but only when dead, after it 

 had been brought in by natives ; more than that, some of 

 the native troops were wearing strips of the animal's skin as 

 bandoliers. Some of these pieces of skin were presented 

 to Sir Harry Johnston, who promptly assumed that the 

 animal must be some species of horse, which was also the 

 opinion of leading naturalists at home to whom the speci- 

 mens of skin were sent. A little later Sir Harry revised his 

 opinion, for though he could not get a glimpse of an animal 

 the natives were able to show him its tracks, and the marks 

 were not unlike those of the eland. 



Eventually were procured a couple of skulls and a com- 

 plete skin, which was set up and exhibited in the Natural 

 History Museum, South Kensington, and it remains one of 

 the very few specimens yet in existence in any collection. 

 The stuffed skin shows an extraordinary beast, suggesting 

 a link between the giraffe and the antelope. Though 

 evidently an immature animal, it stands five feet high at 

 the shoulder, and there is little doubt that the full-grown 

 Okapi is six, or even seven, feet in height. The body is a 

 rich, glossy purplish brown in colour, the legs, hind- 

 quarters, and sides of the head being white, while there are 

 black bands on the thighs, with a perpendicular black band 

 running down the front of the leg to join another broad 

 band of black above the hoof, which has two toes like those 

 of the giraffe. The legs are clean and slender and the 

 hoofs neat, with every indication that the creature is of 

 great speed. The adult male has two short curved bare 

 horns just above the eyes, which again appear to mark 

 the Okapi as a cousin to the giraffe. 



SOLID-HORNED RUMINANTS. 

 FAMILY CERVID^E (DEER). 



The family Cervidae consists of at least a score of species 

 and a far greater number of varieties, including a multitude 

 of antelope-like creatures, many of them of graceful form, 



