The Living Animals of the 



World 



270 



bi..er of the t^vo skulls helongod to a youn^ mal... This is the skin which is now set up 



tC Xat^ a History Museum at South Kensington, and of which a photogvaplnc illustration 



"cl 1-uu s tl is notiJe. Upon receiving this skin. I saw at once what the okapi was-namely^ 



TZ^rZ o^ the giraffe. From tli; ^■ery snrall development of the horn-bosses, I beheyed 



th t t i near..r alhed to the helladotherium than to the living gu-affe. In lorwardrng 



f 1 mens to Professor Eay Lankester, I therefore proposed that it should be cabled 



muSh^Zn U,jrin.,n. Professor Kay Lankester, luu.ng exanuned the specioiens with a 



^ea e Wled.^ I possessed, decided that the animal was rather more closely alhed to 



the laffe thai^to the heLdotherium, but that it possessed sufficient peculiar, les of its o.n 



obli... him to create for its reception a new genus, which he proposed to call Ocajnu. 



Meantime, the original str.ps of the skin (which apparently belonged to an older and 



° larger animal than t lie 



specimen mounted at 

 South Kensington) 

 had been pronounced 

 by experts to whom 

 they were sulimitted 

 to be the sl<in of an 

 undiscovered species 

 of liors(\ and this 

 supposed new horse 

 had been tentati\-ely 

 named by Ur. P. L. 

 Sclater Eqnus joltn- 

 stoni. The full dis- 

 co \' e r y o b 1 i g e d 

 Professor Kay Lan- 

 kester to set aside 

 any idea of the okapi 

 being allied to the 

 horse, but he was 

 good enough to attach 

 Mr. Sclater's specific 

 name of johnstoni to 

 his newly founded 

 genus of Ocapia. 



Up to the time of writing this is all that is known of this extraordinary survival in the 

 (Jonm) Forest of the only living relation of the giralfe. We know by paheontological discoveries 

 in Europe and in Asia that there existed a large family of ruminants which in their develop- 

 ment and features were neither of the Ox group nor of the Deer. Ijut in some respects 

 occupied a position iuidv."ay lietween these two branches of clo\'en-hoofed, horned, riuninating 

 Ungulates. To this family the Giraife, the (Jkapi, the l[el]adotheriuiii, the Samotherium, the 

 Sivatherium, and the Eraniatherinin belong. In all probability bony projections arose from the 

 skulls of these creatures similar in some measure to the prominent bony cores of the horns of 

 oxen. From the top, however, of these Ijony cores there would seem to have arisen anciently 

 antlers, possibly deciduous like those of the prongbuck. In time creatures like the giraffe 

 lost any need for such W'eapons of offence, and ceased to grow antlers; but the liony cores 

 from which these antlers once jjroceeded still remained, and in the case of the giraffe remain 

 to the present day. In the helladotlierium and in the okapi these bony cores have dwindled 

 to mere bumps. 



Ci>infri<lh( phoioin-'r/'Ji hi/ IIulchlii:<oa <L Co. 

 HEAD OF ciKAPI. 

 Tlie eiiorn^ous size uf tlie eiir-s is very iiotewnrthj. 



