OCR Text |
Show 1902.] A SPECIMEN OF THE OKAPI. 341 diameter of the maxillary increases with age in the Ungulates generally and in the Giraffe in particular. Another feature which seems to be of specific value and which is rather striking, is the difference in the shape of the orbits. Professor Lankester has described the orbits of the London specimen as rectangular, whereas in the two specimens of the Tervueren Museum they are circular as in the Giraffe. I was at first inclined to ascribe this disagreement to a difference of age; but on closer inspection I do not see how by further growth this change of form could be brought about. In the Ruminants generally it is precisely in the young that the orbit is more regularly circular. Considering the agreement of the two skulls and the two skins, I have not hesitated to ascribe the specimen lately arrived to the same species as the skeleton of the one and the skin of the other of the two individuals formerly received by the Tervueren Museum. The absence of horns in this adult specimen is, in my opinion, a sexual character; the hornless skull being besides slenderer, as is the case generally in female Ruminants. This conclusion as to the sex was arrived at before the pelvis belonging to the same skeleton as the hornless skull had been examined ; the pelvis having been sent to London, I have been able to compare it with the one belonging to the horned skull. There cannot remain the slightest doubt that the former is that of a female, the latter that of a male individual. It follows that not only the skeleton, of which the horned skull forms part, is that of a male-and about this I have never had any doubt-but also that the mounted skin of the Tervueren Museum, which also exhibits horns, is of the male sex. The difference in size and the slight differences in shape of the two pairs of horns are due to the skin being that of a younger specimen, as is evident from the non-fusion of its ossicusps with the frontal. At present the exact locality of the specimen last arrived is unknown. According to information received by the Congo State authorities, it results that the Okapi is not restricted to the region inhabited by the Wambutti dwarfs. Five years ago, in 1897, an agent of the Congo State forwarded to his superiors the description of a beast which he believed to be an antelope and which is called Ndumbe by the Momvus, a tribe bordering to the south of the Mangbattu country (lat. 3° K , long. 28° E.), whence the skins exhibited to a former meeting by Mr. Boulenger were obtained. The description of the 11 Antilope ndumbe" is clearly that of an Okapi:-" De taille superieure au buffle, tete noire le cou et le corps brun marron ; arriere-train zebre par des raies noires et blanches. Ces raies forment des anneaux sur les quatre membres. La queue est longue de 50 centimetres et terminee par une touffe de poils. Elle a les formes gracieuses et arrondies du z6bre. Sa chair est excellente. |