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Show 180 DR. P. L. SCLATER ON THE OKAPI. [Nov. 15, Dr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., stated that in July last he had visited Brussels in order to examine the specimens of the Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) in the Museum of the Congo Free State at Tervueren near that city. This he had been enabled to do by the kind permission of M. Emile Coart, Conservateur du Musee du Congo. The mounted series of the Okapi in that Museum consisted of a fine adult pair, of which the male carried short giraffe-like horns, as shown in a lithographic plate which was exhibited, while the female had none, and of a pair of skeletons in which the male had likewise horns but the female was hornless. There were also two other mounted specimens of immature animals. Besides these specimens, Dr. Sclater was informed that others had been sent from Tervueren by order of King Leopold to the Museums of Tring, Paris, Stockholm, Madrid, Antwerp, and Rome. All the specimens, as Dr. Sclater understood, had been received from the Station of the Congo Free State on the Ituri, which was practically in the same forest-district as Fort Mbeni, where Sir Harry Johnston's specimens had been obtained, although the Ituri belonged to the water-basin of the Congo, and not to that of the Nile. Dr. Sclater also called attention to an article " A us dem dunkel-sten A f r i c a published in the ‘ Basler Nachrichten' for May 22nd last, and subsequently abstracted in ‘ Globus ' of July the 21st last (vol. lxxxvi. p. 61), whereby it appeared that the writer, Dr. T. T. David, a Swiss naturalist resident at Beni on the Semliki, claimed to be the first European who has observed and obtained an Okapi in its native wilds. Dr. David had sent one of his specimens to Prof. R. Burckhardt, C.M.Z.S. (whose former pupil he had been), for the Zoological Museum at Basel, but Prof. Burckhardt had informed Dr. Sclater that it was unfortunately received in a bad condition. The following was an abstract of Dr. David's principal remarks in the ‘ Basler Nachrichten ' :- " The extremely elongated skull of the Okapi presents small rudiments of horns on the frontal hones. The animal in life has the general bearing of a Tapir ; it is certainly a Ruminant, but its whole appearance, its actions in the swamps in which it lives, its compressed body and the way in which it carries its head, remind one of a Tapir and not at all of an Antelope, so that the stuffed examples of this animal in London and Brussels are quite erroneously set up. The striping of the limbs is much brighter than that of the Zebras. The back is red, especially so in the male ; the ears are enormously large, and are furnished with great tufts of hairs standing up. Small horns are present in some specimens, and, moreover, in both sexes, but are absent in others, which induces me to believe in the possibility of the existence of two species of Okapi. The underskin is as thick as in the Pachyderms, which makes it a very difficult animal to prepare." Dr. Sclater concluded by saying that, notwithstanding what Dr. David had stated and the views of Prof. Lankester and Dr. Forsyth Ma jor, he was quite unable to believe in the existence of more than one species of Okapi in the same limited district, though it seemed that the individual specimens presented some unusual modifications. |