THE OKAPI 30s 



■which will probably prove to belong to a distinct genus. If has 

 five horns, the additional pair being placed above the ears. 



Sir Harry Johnston has quite recently made known anothei- 

 genus of Giraffidae hving in the Semhki forest, Belgian Congo 

 district. The skin and two skulls, as well as the bones of the 

 feet, are known from specimens sent by Sir Harry Johnston to 

 the Xatural History lluseum, and briefly described to the Zoo- 

 logical Society by Professor Eay Lankester.^ This creature, of 

 which the native name is " Okapi," is proposed to be called 

 Ocapia joh7istoni. The first actual specimens which reached this 

 country were two bandoliers made from the skin of the flanks, 

 which were striped black and white, and were not unnaturally 

 held to be portions of the skin of a new species of Zebra. The 

 animal is of about the size of a Sable Antelope, and the back 

 and sides are of a rich brown colour ; it is only the fore- and 

 hind-limbs which are striped, the striping being longitudinal, i.e. 

 parallel with the long axis of the body. The head is Giraffe- 

 like, but there are no external horns ; wisps of curled hairs 

 seem to represent the vestiges of the horns of other Giraffes. 

 The tail is rather short, and tlie neck is rather thick and short. 

 The skull is clearly Giraffine. The basicranial axis is straight, 

 and the fontanelle in the lachrymal region is very large. Upon 

 the frontal bones near their parietal border is a large boss on 

 either side, which presumably represents the horn core or " os 

 cornu." On the mandible the great length of the diastema 

 between the incisors and premolars is a Giraffine characteristic. 

 The Okapi lives in pairs in the deepest recesses of the forest. 



We are acquainted with a few extinct forms, belonging to 

 Giraffa, which are extra-African in range. G. sivalensis is from 

 the Pliocene of the Siwalik Hills in India, G. atiica from Greece. 

 These remains, however, do not include the top of the skull, so that 

 it is doubtful whether their horns were as in G. camelopardalis. 



A closely - allied genus is the extinct Samotherium. This 

 flourished in Miocene times, and its remains have been found in 

 the Greek island of Samos. The neck and limbs are shorter than 

 in the Giraffe, and the horns, longer than in Giraffa, are placed 

 just above the orbit upon the frontal bones alone, instead of 

 upon the boundary line of frontals and parietals as in Giraffa. In 

 several ways, therefore, the existing Giraffe is a more modified or 



1 See also Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1901, ii. p. 3. 

 VOL. X X 



