344 DR. C, I. FORSYTH MAJOR ON [NoV. 18, 



Lieutenant Leoni, who forwarded to Brussels the first spe- 

 cimens, also writes that the Okapi is called N'dumhe by the 

 Momvus, between the rivers Nepoko and Adjamu, and on the 

 Rubi, and that he himself had met with two herds on the Nepoko. 

 He mentions besides two other names of the Okapi : in the 

 country of the Mokumus it is called M'Boote, and in the Kiu- 

 vuailia country Kenghe. I have not been able to find these two 

 districts marked on the maps. 



There are already qviite as many native denominations known 

 as there are binomial names for the Okapi, but it does not follow 

 that each tribe enjoys the possession of a distinct form. To 

 return for a moment to the question of difierent species : from 

 what I have said, it may be seen that the new material rather 

 confirms my view as to the specific distinctness of the Brussels 

 specimens, although speaking generally I am ci priori more in 

 sympathy with uniting than with dividing species, and have 

 come to consider new specific names as being in many cases an 

 evil, although a necessary one. 



Personally I esteem it a more fascinating and a more important 

 task to investigate the relations of the Okapi with the Giraffe on 

 the one hand, and its fossil relatives on the other. This investi- 

 gation culminates in the question, to which I have already 

 endeavoured to give an answer ^, whether the main characters in 

 which the Okapi difiers from the Girafife are generalized characters, 

 or whether it is the reduced, degenei-ate survivor of a series, " the 

 most modern and most modest member of a tribe which has 

 flourished in bygone times," as it has been put ^. I hope to show 

 that a similar inquiry is not " a fruitless amusement." 



The importance of the discovery of the Okapi from a scientific 

 point of view consists, of course, in the quite unhoped-for addition 

 of a second living genus to a family of Ruminants which was 

 hitherto represented in the recent fauna by the isolated and 

 aberrant type of the Girafie alone. 



One important point upon which the Brussels material has 

 thro-\vn light is the mode of development of the horns. The 

 horn-cones which had remained attached to the first skin received 

 in Brussels having been macerated, it became clear that, as in 

 the Giraflfe, the horns of the Okapi are composed of two parts : 



(1) of the tuberosities or bumps of the cranial bones — the frontal 

 alone in the case of the Okapi — which increase with age ; and 



(2) of the sort of epiphysis, termed ossicusp by Prof. Lankester, 

 which in the younger animal is separated from the underlying 

 frontal by a stratum of fibrous structure, but finally co-ossifies 

 with the frontal, without any trace of a suture remaining in 

 the old animal. 



Apai-t from the circumstance that in the Giraflfe this " ossicusp" 

 is placed on two bones, the parietal and the frontal, we have this 

 other difierence, that the tips of the horns present a polished 



1 ' La Belgiqiie Coloniale,' May 25th, 1902, p. 245 ; P. Z. S, 1902, ii. p. 79, 

 ' P. Z. S. 1892, ii. p. 214, 



