180 DR, P, L. SCLATEU ON THE OKAPI. [Nov. 15, 



Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., stated that in July last he had 

 visited Brussels in order to examine the specimens of the Okapi 

 (Okapia johnstoni) in the Museum of the Congo Free State at 

 Tervueren near that city. This he had been enabled to do by the 

 kind permission of M. Emile Coart, Conservateur du Musee du 

 Congo. The mounted series of the Okapi in that Museum 

 consisted of a fine adult pair, of which the male carried short 

 gu-affe-like horns, as shown in a lithographic plate which was 

 exhibited, while the female had none, and of a pair of skeletons 

 in which the male had likewise horns but the female was horn- 

 less. There were also two other mounted specimens of immature 

 animals. Besides these specimens, Dr. Sclater was informed that 

 others had been sent from Tervueren by ordei- of King Leopold to 

 the Museums of Tring, Paris, Stockholm, Madrid, Antwerp, and 

 Rome. All the specimens, as Dr. Sclater understood, had been 

 receiA^ed from the Station of the Congo Free State on the Ituri, 

 which was practically in the same forest-district as Fort Mbeni, 

 where Sir Hai'iy Johnston's specimens had been obtained, although 

 the Ituri belonged to the water-basin of the Congo, and not to 

 that of the Nile. 



Dr. Sclater also called attention to an article " Aus clem dunkel- 

 sten Africa," published in the ' Basler Nachrichten ' for Ma}- 22nd 

 last, and subsequently abstracted in ' Globus ' of July the 21st 

 last (vol. Ixxxvi. p. 61), whereby it appeared that the writer. 

 Dr. T. T. David, a Swiss natiu-alist resident at Beni on the 

 Semliki, claimed to be the first European who has observed and 

 obtained an Okapi in its native wilds. Dr. David had sent one of 

 his specimens to Prof. R. Burckhardt, C.M.Z.S. (whose former 

 pupil he had been), for the Zoological Museum at Basel, but 

 Prof. Burckhardt had informed Di-. Sclatei- that it was unfoi'tu- 

 nately received in a bad condition. 



The following was an abstract of Dr. David's principal remarks 

 in the ' Basler Nachrichten ' :- — 



" The extremely elongated skull of the Okapi presents small rudiments of horns 

 on the frontal bones. The animal in life has the general bearing of a Tapir ; it is 

 certainly a Euminant, but its whole appearance, its actions in the swamps in which 

 it lives, its compressed body and the way in which it carries its head, remind one of 

 a Tapir and not at all of an Antelope, so that the stutl'ed examples of this animal in 

 Loudon and Brussels are quite erroneously set up. The striping of the limbs is 

 much brighter than that of the Zebras. The back is red, especiallj'so in the male ; 

 the ears are enormously large, and are furnished with great tufts of hairs standing 

 up. Small horns are present in some specimens, and, moreover, in both sexes, but 

 are absent in others, which induces me to believe in the possibility of the existence 

 of two species of Okapi. The underskin is as thick as in the Pachyderms, which 

 makes it a very difficult animal to prepare." 



Dr. Sclater concluded by saying that, notwithstanding what 

 Dr. David had stated and the views of Prof. Lankester and 

 Dr. Forsyth Major, he was quite unable to believe in the existence 

 of more than one species of Okapi in the same limited district, 

 though it seemed that the individual specimens presented some 

 uniisual modifications. 



