tiARTEBEESTS — OkAPi ioi 



have mainly an upward direction, with a distinct forward curve at starting ; but 

 in the South African sassabi (D. lunatus) these appendages are not only more 

 slender, but their direction is mainly outwards, with the tips incurving so as to 

 enclose a somewhat lyrate space. Standing about 4 feet in height at the withers, 

 and measuring nearly 7 feet to the root of the tail, the sassabi has a chocolate- 

 brown coat, shading into black on the back, and with a dark blaze on the face. 

 Its range originally extended from Barotsiland southwards into the Transvaal, 

 Portuguese East Africa, and probably Swaziland, but it is now rare throughout its 

 habitat. As a rule, it frequents flat, open country devoid of covert, but when 

 found in forest-districts, is restricted to open glades between the trees. It associates 

 in herds, which are usually small, but in Matabililand formerly included hundreds 

 of individuals. It has the reputation of being the swiftest and most enduring of 

 all the South African antelopes. 



In the preceding paragraphs reference has frequently been made to the 

 presence of a broad black streak or " blaze " on the face of African antelopes. In 

 the two last members of the group, the bontebok (D. pygargits) and the blesbok 

 (D. albifrons), this dark blaze is, for some unknown reason, replaced by a white 

 one, although in immature animals it is dark. These two nearly allied South 

 African species have purplish coats relieved by the aforesaid white blaze on the 

 face and white limbs and under-parts. The two species are sufficiently distin- 

 guished by the presence in the bontebok and the absence in the blesbok of a white 

 rump-patch, which includes the upper portion of the tail. The latter species 

 formerly occurred in millions on the plains to the south of the Limpopo, which 

 apparently formed the northern limit of its range. It is now on the verge of 

 extermination, and would probably have already ceased to exist had it not been 

 locally protected. Still nearer extinction is the bontebok, which had a more 

 southern distribution and never extended north of the Vaal River : it now survives 

 in its native land only in a protected state on one farm in Cape Colony. 



Ethiopian Africa at the present day is the sole habitat of a very 

 remarkable family of ruminants — the Giraffidce — now represented by 

 the giraffes and the okapi, both of which are long-legged and long-necked animals, 

 standing considerably higher at the withers than at the rump, with elongated 

 slender heads, and short-haired tapering and tufted tails of medium length. The 

 skull is characterised by the remarkable lightness of its constituent bones, which 

 are more or less inflated in the neighbourhood of the forehead, and also by the 

 great length and slenderness of the lower jaw, the front te^th in which are 

 separated by a long gap from those of the cheek-series. The latter, in both jaws, 

 are coated with a characteristically rough enamel ; while the four pairs of lower 

 front teeth, of which the three middle pairs represent the incisors and the outer 

 pair the canines of the Carnivora, have much-expanded crowns with a similar 

 rough enamel. The crowns of the outer pair are, moreover, bilobed, instead of 

 simple, and thus differ from the corresponding teeth of all other ruminants. The 

 tongue is long and strap-like, so that it can be protruded a considerable distance 

 in advance of the lips. Skin-covered horns are present in the males, and in the 

 case of the giraffes in both sexes; these consist of bony pedicles, apparently 

 corresponding to the pedicles supporting the antlers of the deer; they are, how- 



