1902.] A SPECIMEN OF THE OKAPI. 341 



diameter of the maxillary increases with age in the Ungulates 

 generally and in the Giraffe in particular. 



Another feature which seems to be of specific value and which 

 is rather striking, is the difiei^ence in the shape of the orbits. 

 Professor Lankester has described the orbits of the London speci- 

 men as rectangular, whereas in the two specimens of the Tervueren 

 Museum they are circular as in the Gii-affe. I was at first in- 

 clined to ascribe this disagreement to a difference of age ; but on 

 closer inspection I do not see how by further growth this change 

 of form could be brought about. In the Ruminants generally 

 it is precisely in the young that the orbit is more regularly 

 circular. 



Considering the agreement of the two skulls and the two skins, 

 I have not hesitated to ascribe the specimen lately arrived to 

 the same species as the skeleton of the one and the skin of the 

 other of the two individuals formerly received by the Tervueren 

 Museum. 



The absence of horns in this adult specimen is, in my opinion, 

 a sexual character ; the hornless skull being besides slenderer, as 

 is the case generally in female Ruminants. This conclusion 

 as to the sex was arrived at before the pelvis belonging to the 

 same skeleton as the hornless skull had been examined ; the pelvis 

 having been sent to London, I have been able to compare it with 

 the one belonging to the horned skxdl. There cannot remain the 

 slightest doubt that the former is that of a female, the latter 

 that of a male individual. 



It follows that not only the skeleton, of which the horned 

 skviU forms part, is that of a male — and about this I have never 

 had any doubt — but also that the mounted skin of the Tervueren 

 Museum, which also exhibits horns, is of the male sex. The 

 diflerence in size and the slight differences in shape of the two 

 pairs of horns are due to the skin being that of a yoiuiger speci- 

 men, as is evident from the non-fusion of its ossicusps with the 

 frontal. 



At present the exact locality of the specimen last arrived is 

 unknown. According to information received by the Congo 

 State authorities, it results that the Okapi is not restricted to the 

 region inhabited by the Wambutti dwarfs. Five years ago, in 

 1897, an agent of the Congo State forwarded to his superiors the 

 description of a beast which he believed to be an antelope and 

 which is called Ndiimbe by the Momvus, a tribe bordering to 

 the south of the Mangbattu country (lat. 3° N., long. 28° "e.), 

 whence the skins exhibited to a former meeting by Mr. Boulenger 

 were obtained. The description of the ^'- Antilope ndumhe" is 

 clearly that of an Okapi : — " De taille superieure aii buffle, tete 

 noire, le cou et le corps brun maiTon ; arriere-train zebre par 

 des raies noires et blanches. Ces raies ferment des anneaux sur 

 les qviatre membres. La queue est longue de 50 centimetres et 

 terminee par une touffe de polls. EUe a les formes gracieuses et 

 arrondies du zebre. Sa chair est excellente." 



