288 



DE. E. RAT LANKESTEE ON OICAPIA. 



teeth is a flatter more spatula-like structure in the Giraffe than in the Okapi. In the 

 Okapi the group is relatively small, and the individual teeth not only actually smaller 

 l)nf:, relatively to the size of jaw and skull, very much smaller than in GimffaK They 

 do not form so flat or horizontally depressed a group : there is, on the contrary, a marked 

 concavity within the margin of the group of teeth. This difference in the relative size 

 and in the shape of the group of incisive teeth of the lower jaw points to some marked 

 difference in the food of the Okapi as compared with that of the Giraffe. We do not 

 know, as yet, on what the Okapi feeds, but it is certainly not the same vegetable 

 o-rowth as that which is sought by the Giraffe. Nevertheless, whilst there is a marked 



Text-fis. 9. 



Canine teeth of Girafiidee, all of the natural size. 



A. Right permanent canine and three incisors of Giraffe. 



B. Right deciduous canine of young Giraffe. 



C. Right permanent canine of Okapia johnsioni. 



D. Right permanent canine of Samoflierium (Palceotragus). 



E. Right permanent canine of SivatJieiium. 



These drawings were made under my superintendence from original specimens preserved 

 in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. 



difference in the proportions of this anterior group of teeth when compared in the two 

 animals, the remarkable fact is discovered that the Okapi has bifoliate lower canines 

 precisely resembling those of the Giraffe. This fact alone is sufficient to bring 

 Olcapa — given its general Pecorine characters — into close association witli Giraffa. 

 The bifoliate lower canine was not hitherto known in any other of the Pecora, or, 



' The very much smaller relative size of the front teeth of the lower jaw of Okajiia than of Giraffa is shown 

 by a comparison of the drawings given here, viz. text-figure 12, p. 293, showing the milk-deutition of this 

 region in Girajfa, with' the permanent dentition of Okapia (PI. XXXII. fig. 12), and the text-figure 9, 

 showing the permanent and the deciduous canines of Oiraffa, compared with the permanent canines of Olvjnu, 

 of SuiHOlherium, and of Sivatherium, drawn of natural size. 



