of the higher ranges near Kasrin, in Central Tunis, and have
found it in the south near Gafsa and Tamerza. In the north of
the Regency it seems to occur on the mountains near Zaghouan,
the extreme eastern range of the Atlas, and in the neighbourhood
of Ghardimaou, on the Algerio-Tunisian frontier, from both of
which places M. Blanc, the naturalist in Tunis, tells me he has
received specimens in the flesh. I myself have also been offered
Edmi-shooting on an estate only some twenty miles or so south
of Tunis. It seems evident, therefore, that the species has a
wide range in the Regency, although perhaps it is nowhere very
abundant.
“The Edmi is to be found either in small herds or singly, and
occasionally, though not as a rule, at a considerable elevation.
On the Djebel Selloum and Djebel Semama, near Kasrin, both of
which mountains are nearly 4000 feet above sea-level, I found
the Gazelles about halfway up. These mountains, although steep
in places and with some very rugged scarps, are in great part
well-wooded with Aleppo pines, and on the lower slopes with a
thick undergrowth of the usual _maquis_ vegetation. In this
brushwood the Gazelles easily escape detection and are naturally
not very often seen. Although fond of cover, the Edmi will adapt
itself to circumstances, and seems equally at home on the arid
mountains of the south, where there is but little vegetation,
and that merely of a dwarf description, affording slight
shelter. In the spring, when my hunting-trips after Aoudad
(_Ovis tragelaphus_) and Edmi have taken place, there has
always been a little water on these mountains; but for some
months of the year, I am told, the watercourses are dry, and
the animals then, should they wish to drink, must travel some
distance. That both these species, however, shift their quarters
constantly I feel convinced, force of circumstances rendering
them as much nomads as the Arabs themselves.
“The Edmi is very much larger than the Dorcas Gazelle, its
weight being almost double. Its coat is darker in colour
and with rather longer and coarser hair, while its knees,
besides having very strongly developed brushes, show distinct
callosities. The horns in the adult male are very stout and
deeply annulated, and generally with but little curve, measuring
about 13 inches, or even more in fine specimens. Those of the
female are much more slender and smoother, but sometimes of fair
length, some in my possession measuring 11 inches.”
Among the wood-blocks left ready for use by the late Sir Victor Brooke
was a figure of a fine head of a male of this Gazelle drawn by Mr.
Smit, of which we now give an impression.
[Illustration: Fig. 58.
Head of Edmi Gazelle, ♂.
(Drawn by Smit under the direction of the late Sir Victor Brooke.)]
The Edmi Gazelle is not often brought alive to Europe, but besides
Ogilby’s type specimen, which we have already mentioned, at least three
others have been exhibited at various times in the Zoological Society’s
menagerie. An example of this species was first obtained in 1839,
as mentioned in the Report of the Council for 1840, and another was
acquired in November 1862. Others were presented by Capt. Alan Gardner,
R.N., in June 1865, and by Rear-Admiral Sir William Hall, R.N., in
May 1867. Sclater observed a female of this Gazelle in the Zoological
Garden of Berlin in September 1897 (see P. Z. S. 1897, p. 813).
As we have already stated, the typical specimen of this Gazelle,
formerly in the Zoological Society’s Collection, is now in the British
Museum, as is also a stuffed female, originally presented by H.M.
the Queen to the Zoological Society, but transferred to the National
Collection in 1855. In the British Museum Gallery of Mammals will be
found a good adult stuffed specimen of this Gazelle stated to be from
near Biskra, Algeria, and presented by Mr. J. I. S. Whitaker. There are
also some frontlets and horns of this species from the same locality
presented by Messrs. Rowland Ward & Co.
We are greatly indebted to Sir Edmund Loder for a photograph of a head
of a female of this Gazelle, taken from a specimen in his collection,
which he himself shot on the 27th of February, 1893, on the Ahmar
Khaddou Mountains, two days’ march east of Biskra. It shows very
clearly the inferior size of the horns in this sex, and the long ears
characteristic of the species.
[Illustration: Fig. 59.
Front view of head of Edmi Gazelle, ♀.
(From a photograph.)]
Our illustration of the male of this Gazelle (Plate LVIII.) has been
drawn by Mr. Smit from the Algerian specimen in the British Museum
above referred to.
_January,_ 1898.
[Illustration:
THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LIX.
_J. Smit del. et lith._ _Hanhart imp._
The Arabian Gazelle.
GAZELLA ARABICA.
_Published by R. H Porter._]
89. THE ARABIAN GAZELLE.
GAZELLA ARABICA (LICHT.).
[PLATE LIX.]
_Antilope arabica_, =Licht.= Darst. Säug. pl. vi. (1827);
=Ehrenb.= Symb. Phys. Decas i. pl. v. (1828); =Fisch.= Syn.
Mamm. p. 460 (1829); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 287 (1836);
=Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 40 (1838); =Oken=,
Allg. Nat. vii. p. 1371 (1838); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Supp.
i. p. 261 (1840); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A. Mamm. p. 176 (1842);
=Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 407 (1844), v. p. 403 (1855);
=Reichenb.= Säug. iii. pl. xxxiii. fig. 188 (1845); =Schinz=,
Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 399 (1845); =id.= Mon. Antil. p. 4, pl. ii.
(1848); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 307 (1853); =Heugl.= Faun. roth. Meer,
Peterm. Mitth. 1861, p. 16; =id.= Ant. u. Büff. N.O.-Afr. (N.
Act. Leop. xxx. pt. 2) p. 5 (1863).
_Gazella arabica_, =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 193 (1853);
=Tristr.= P. Z. S. 1866, p. 86; =id.= Faun. & Flor. Pal. p. 26
(1884) (Palestine); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 159; =Blanf.=
Zool. Abyss, p. 261, pl. i. fig. 3 (horns) (1870); =Brooke=, P.
Z. S. 1873, p. 544, 1874, p. 141 (fig., head); =Scl.= List Vert.
An. Z. S. (1) p. 140 (1883), (2) p. 981 (1896); =Jent.= Cat.
Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 137 (1887); =W. Scl.=
Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 458 (1891); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm.
Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 168 (1892); =Ward=, Horn
Meas. (1) p. 114 (1892), (2) p. 156 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and
Hoofs, p. 179 (1893); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1897, p. 812 (Hodeidah).
_Antilope cora_, =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 216, v. p. 333
(1827); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 287 (1836).
_Gazella cora_, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 161 (1843).
_Antilope dorcas_, var. δ, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl.
1845, p. 268 (1847); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand.
Beitr. ii. p. 264; Reprint, p. 84 (1848).
_Gazella vera_, =Gray=, Knowsl. Men. pl. iii. (1850) (_cf._
=Scl.= P. Z. S. 1896, p. 984).
_Gazella bennetti_, =Yerb. & Thos.= P. Z. S. 1895, p. 555 (Aden).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Ghasal_ of Arabs, like _G. dorcas_; _Ariel_
or _Aiel_ in Syria (_Ehrenberg_).
Size medium; height at withers about 24 or 25 inches. General colour
dark smoky fawn, much darker than in the allied species. Facial
markings distinct; central facial band dark rufous-fawn, with a black
spot on the nose. Ears of medium length, brownish-fawn behind. Dark
lateral and pygal bands smoky brown; light lateral band very slightly
lighter than the back. Limbs more rufous than body; knee-brushes brown
or black.
Skull with short broad nasals; anteorbital fossæ shallow in the only
good skull available. Basal length 6·75 inches, greatest breadth 3·3,
muzzle to orbit 3·7.
Horns thick and rather short, almost straight and parallel to each
other, a little curved backwards below, and forwards above.
_Female._ Similar to the male, but horns short and straight.
_Hab._ Western Arabia.
Although the Arabian Gazelle was described and figured as long ago as
1827, and specimens of it are by no means rare in captivity, we have
as yet received little information about its exact range and its mode
of life. But the great peninsula of Arabia still remains, we must
recollect, one of the largest tracts on the earth’s surface that has
been least explored by scientific travellers.
Hemprich and Ehrenberg, the discoverers of this Gazelle, met with
it during their travels on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, and
transmitted specimens of both sexes to the Berlin Museum. Here they
were first described and figured by Lichtenstein in his ‘Darstellung
der Säugethiere’--a work devoted to making known the riches of the
Mammal-collection of the great Institution of which he was the Director.
Following Hemprich and Ehrenberg’s MS., Lichtenstein named the species
“_Antilope arabica_,” and a short time afterwards it was again
described and figured by Ehrenberg in his ‘Symbolæ Physicæ’ under the
same designation.
Ehrenberg informs us that he and his fellow-traveller Hemprich obtained
their first specimens of this Gazelle at Hamam el Faraun, on the coast
of the Sinaitic Peninsula between Suez and Tor, and subsequently found
it abundant on the island of Farsan on the Arabian coast of the Red
Sea. They also observed Gazelles which they believed to be of the same
species near Baalbec in Syria, but these, we think, are more likely to
have been _Gazella dorcas_.
Succeeding authorities have added very little to our knowledge of
this Gazelle. Canon Tristram, in his ‘Fauna and Flora’ of Palestine,
mentions a Gazelle occurring in the “desert-country east of the Jordan”
as being probably of this species; but we believe that he did not
obtain any good specimens of it. Dr. Blanford, in his volume on the
‘Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia,’ has figured (for comparison) a head
of this species obtained by Captain Heysham near Mocha, S.W. Arabia;
and in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1874, the late Sir
Victor Brooke gave a woodcut of the head of this Gazelle, which, by the
kind permission of the Society, we are enabled to reproduce.
[Illustration: Fig. 60.
Head of Arabian Gazelle.
(P. Z. S. 1874, p. 141.)]
Living examples of the Arabian Gazelle are easily obtained at Aden and
at Hodeidah, Jeddah, and other Arabian ports on the Red Sea, and are
often brought to Europe. We have little doubt that the Gazelles in the
Derby Menagerie figured by Waterhouse Hawkins in the third plate of
the ‘Gleanings,’ and there called by Lord Derby’s MS. name, _Gazella
vera_, were of this species, though in the text they are referred to as
_G. dorcas_ and in the list of plates as _G. cuvieri_. The Zoological
Society of London appear to have received their first specimens in
1874[9], and since that date (as will be seen by their published Lists
of Animals) have acquired many examples, chiefly by presentation. At
the present time there are two fine males in the Society’s Gardens,
both brought from Aden and presented--one by Mr. R. G. Buchanan and the
other by Mr. J. Benett Stanford, F.Z.S. From the former of these Mr.
Smit’s drawing (Plate LIX.) was taken.
The British Museum has lately acquired from the Zoological Society
a good male example of this Gazelle, which was obtained at Aden and
brought alive to London. It has been mounted for the Mammal Gallery.
The Museum also has the skull from Mocha figured by Dr. Blanford, as
already mentioned, and since presented by him to the collection, and
the skin of a young animal from Gilead, obtained by Canon Tristram, the
determination of which is, however, somewhat doubtful.
_January,_ 1898.
[Illustration: THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LX.
_J. Smit del. et lith._ _Hanhart imp._
The Indian Gazelle.
GAZELLA BENNETTI.
_Published by R. H. Porter._ ]
90. THE INDIAN GAZELLE.
GAZELLA BENNETTI (SYKES).
[PLATE LX.]
_Antilope bennettii_, =Sykes=, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 104; =Less.=
Compl. Buff. x. p. 287 (1836); =Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z.
S. (2) p. 40 (1838); =Laurill=. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 617
(1839); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Supp. i. p. 261 (1840); =Less.=
N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1842); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p.
400 (1845); =id.= Mon. Antil. pl. iii. _b_ (1848); =Reichenb.=
Säug. iii. p. 111 (1845); =Fraser=, Zool. Typica, pl. xvi.
(1849); =Horsf.= Cat. Mamm. E. I. C. p. 166 (1851); =Wagn.=
Schr. Säug. Supp. v. p. 405 (1855).
_Gazella bennettii_, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 161 (1843);
=id.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846); =Hutton=, J. A.
S. B. xv. p. 150 (1846) (Neemuch); =Gray=, List Ost. B. M. p. 56
(1847); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 4 (1850); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin.
p. 193 (1853); =Jerd.= Mamm. Ind. p. 280 (1867); =Blanf.= J.
A. S. B. xxxvi. p. 196 (1867); =Kinloch=, Large Game Shooting,
p. 57, pl. (1869); =McMaster=, Notes on Jerdon, pp. 141 & 249
(1870); =Blanf.= Zool. Abyss. p. 261, pl. i. fig. 2 (horns)
(1870); =Stoliczka=, J. A. S. B. xli. p. 229 (1872); =Blanf.=
P. Z. S. 1873, p. 315 (distribution); =Brooks=, P. Z. S. 1873,
p. 544; =Blanf.= E. Persia, ii. p. 91 (1876); =Ball=, P. A. S.
B. 1877, p. 172; =Scl.= List Vert. An. Z. S. (8) p. 141 (1883),
(9) p. 155 (1896); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p.
264 (1884); =Sterndale=, Mamm. Ind. p. 463 (1884); =Murray=,
Zool. Sind, p. 56 (1884); =Blanf.= Faun. Brit. Ind., Mamm. p.
526 (1891); =W. Scl.= Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 159 (1891);
=Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 168
(1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 124 (1892), (2) p. 166 (1896);
=Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 175 (1893); =Percy=, Badm. Big Game
Shooting, ii. p. 355 (1894).
_Tragops bennettii_, =Hodgs.= J. A. S. B. 1847, p. 11, & xvi.
p. 695; =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 116; =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p.
62 (1852); =Adams=, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 522 (Punjab); Gerr. Cat.
Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 233 (1862); =Blyth=, Cat. Mamm. Mus. As.
Soc. p. 173 (1863); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 39 (1872); =id.=
Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 108 (1873).
_Tragopsis bennettii_, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 157 (1869).
_Antilope arabica_, =Elliot=, Madr. Journ. x. p. 223 (1839)
(Mahratta Country).
_Gazella christii_, =Gray=, =Blyth=, J. A. S. B. xi. p. 452
(1842); =Hutton=, J. A. S. B. xv. p. 151 (1846).
_Antilope hazenna_, =I. Geoffr. St.-Hil.= Voy. Jacq., Mamm.
p. 74, Atl. pl. vi. (1844); =Schinz=, Mon. Ant. pl. xxi. _a_
(1848); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. v. p. 406 (1855).
_Gazella hazenna_, =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 193 (1853).
_Tragopsis hazenna_, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 157 (1869).
_Gazella fuscifrons_, =Blanf.= P. Z. S. 1873, p. 317 (fig., head
♀) (Jalk, Persia); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 545; =Blanf.= E.
Persia, ii. p. 92 (1876); =Sterndale=, Mamm. Ind. p. 465 (1884);
=W. Scl.= Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 160 (1891).
VERNACULAR NAMES:--_Chinkára_, _Chikára_, _Kol-punch_ in
Hindustani; _Phaskela_ in N.W. Provinces; _Ask_ or _Ast_ and
_Ahu_ in Baluchistan; _Khazm_ in Brahmi; _Kalsipi_ in Mahratta;
_Tiska_, _Budári_, or _Mudári_ in Canarese; _Sank-húlé_ in
Mysore; _Porsya_ ♂, _Chari_ ♀ in Baori; _Burudu-jinka_ in
Telugu; _Ravine-Deer_ of many Anglo-Indians.
Size medium; height at withers 24 to 25 inches. General colour dull
fawn. Facial markings distinct, the darker ones rufous-fawn; a black
spot on the top of the nose. Ears of medium length, fawn-coloured
behind. Dark lateral and pygal bands brownish fawn, scarcely darker
than the back; light lateral bands scarcely perceptible; knee-brushes
present.
Skull with deep anteorbital fossæ:--Basal length 7·2 inches, greatest
breadth 3·45, muzzle to orbit 4.
Horns thick, heavily ribbed, close together, diverging little but
evenly, gently curved backwards below and forwards at their tips.
_Female._ Similar to the male, but horns straight, simple, about
two-thirds the length of those of the male.
_Hab._ Indian Peninsula, extending westwards through
Baluchistan to the Persian Gulf.
Like the Lion and the Cheetah this Gazelle belongs to an Ethiopian type
of mammals, and was originally, no doubt, an intruder into India from
the west. But, as will be seen when we come to describe its range, it
has now spread itself over the greater part of the peninsula except on
the eastern side. On the west the Indian Gazelle extends far along the
Mekran coast to the Persian Gulf, and there meets the Arabian Gazelle,
of which it is undoubtedly a very close ally, although the latter is
always much darker on the back.
Although the Indian Gazelle, or “Ravine-Deer,” as it is usually termed
by Europeans, was doubtless known to the sportsmen of British India
long ago, it was not made known to science until 1831, when Col. Sykes,
one of the earliest pioneers in Indian natural history, described it
in a communication made to the Zoological Society of London. Sykes, in
his paper on the Mammals of the Deccan read before the Society in July
of that year, proposed to name it _Antilope bennetti_, after the
late Edward Turner Bennett, a well-known naturalist, who was at that
time Vice-Secretary of the Society. Sykes met with this Antelope on the
rocky hills of the Deccan “in groups rarely exceeding three or four
in number, and very frequently solitary.” In 1849, Fraser published
a figure of this species in his ‘Zoologia Typica,’ taken from one of
Sykes’s male specimens in the British Museum, which is still in the
National Collection, although not in the exhibition gallery. In 1844,
in his description of the mammals of Jacquemont’s ‘Voyage dans l’Inde,’
Isidore Geoffr. St. Hilaire described and figured an _Antilope
hazenna_, which he at that time considered to be different from
the present animal. But there can be no doubt that Jacquemont’s
specimens, which were obtained at Malwa in Central India, are the
same as _Gazella bennetti_, and Sykes’s term being the oldest
has been universally employed as the designation of this species. As
we shall presently show, _Gazella christii_ of Gray, from Sind,
and _Gazella fuscifrons_ of Blanford, from Baluchistan, are names
which have been based on what are merely slightly divergent forms of
_Gazella bennetti_.
From the researches of Elliot, Jerdon, Blyth, Blanford, and other
authorities on the mammals of British India, we are now well acquainted
with the range of this Gazelle in the peninsula and adjoining lands
to the west. Dr. Blanford describes it as extending throughout the
plains and low hills of North-western and Central India, and thence
through Baluchistan to the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf. In the
Indian peninsula, he continues, the Indian Gazelle ranges in suitable
localities throughout the Punjab, Sind, Rajputana, the N.W. Provinces,
and the whole of the Bombay Presidency with the exception of the
Western Ghats and Konkan; it also occurs in Central India as far east
as Palamow and Western Sargiya, and in the Central Provinces as far
east as Seoni and Chánda, together with the Hyderabad territories and
the Madras Presidency to a little south of the Kistna, Gazelles being
found at Anantapur, south of Kurnool, and in Northern Mysore.
For an account of the habits of the Indian Gazelle and the modes of its
chase, we cannot do better than refer to the last edition of General
Kinloch’s ‘Large Game Shooting,’ where they are described as follows:--
“The favourite haunts of this Gazelle are extensive wastes
of sandy or rocky ground, sprinkled with low bushes, and
interspersed here and there with patches of cultivation. Thick
jungles they avoid; and they are seldom to be met with in
districts which are entirely under crop. During the daytime
they resort to secluded spots where they are not subject to
annoyance, and in the mornings and evenings they frequently
repair to fields of young grain, sometimes in close proximity to
villages.
“In some places they are extremely wild, and can only be
approached by the most careful stalking; in other localities
they are comparatively tame, and will allow the sportsman to
walk openly to within easy range. At most times, however, they
are restless little animals, continually on the move, and they
have a provoking way of trotting off with a switch of their
black tails the moment that they suspect danger.
“On open plains the best way of getting within shot of them is
under cover of a steady shooting horse. As they afford but a
small mark, and seldom remain still very long, quick as well as
accurate shooting is required, and beginners in the art of rifle
shooting will find them excellent practice.
“The officers of the Guides used to hawk the Gazelle in the
neighbourhood of Hótó Mardán, the Falcons used for the purpose
being nestling ‘_charghs_’ (_Falco sacer_). Adult caught birds
cannot be trained for this sport, and the nestlings had to be
obtained from the distant province of Balkh by the assistance of
some of the Kábúl Sirdárs. In the present state of our relations
with Áfghánístán, the Falcons cannot be procured, and the sport
has, for the present at any rate, died out. The hawks alone
could not kill a Gazelle, but were assisted by greyhounds, which
used to pull it down after the hawks had confused and stunned it
by repeated blows. I regret that I never had an opportunity of
witnessing the flight, which has been described to me as very
interesting and exciting.”
Dr. Blanford tells us that this Gazelle lives on grass and on the
leaves of bushes, and, so far as he is aware, never drinks. “I have
seen it,” he says, “in the deserts of Sind in places where the only
water for twenty miles round was procured from wells; and in spots in
Western and Central India where, in the hot weather, the only water
to be obtained was in small pools remaining in the beds of streams.
But around these pools, in which the tracks of almost every animal
in the forest was to be seen, I never yet saw the very peculiarly
formed tracks of the Gazelle, although it frequently abounded in the
neighbourhood. The four-horned Antelope, on the other hand, drinks
habitually.”
_Gazella christii_, which we have alluded to above as synonymous
with this species, was a MS. name of the late Dr. Gray, which appears
to have been first published by Blyth in 1842, and applied to a pale
form of the present animal from Kutch and Sind. But more recent
researches have shown that it is not properly separable from the
typical _Gazella bennetti_.
_Gazella fuscifrons_, another synonym also mentioned above, was
based by Dr. Blanford in 1873 on a doe with distinctly ringed horns and
with portions of the face dark brown, obtained in Baluchistan. But the
late Sir O. B. St. John subsequently procured what he justly concluded
to be the male of this form, which, as acknowledged by Dr. Blanford
himself, proved to be not distinct from _Gazella bennetti_. By
the kindness of the Zoological Society we are enabled to reproduce Dr.
Blanford’s figures of the head of _Gazella fuscifrons_, which,
except for the slight differences above mentioned, give an equally good
idea of the head of the typical _G. bennetti_.
[Illustration: Fig. 61.
Head of _Gazella fuscifrons_, ♀.
(P. Z. S. 1873, p. 317.)]
The Indian Gazelle is frequently brought to Europe alive, though it
is not so common in our menageries as _Gazella dorcas_, _G.
subgutturosa_, and some other species. According to the Zoological
Society’s books, the first examples were received in 1838, and since
1860, as will be seen by the printed lists, about twelve specimens
have been exhibited. A pair presented by Capt. H. J. Hope Edwards, in
April 1883, bred, and the female gave birth to a young one in November
of that year; but, like other Gazelles, this species does not usually
thrive in the dull climate of England.
As is the case with many common animals, the British Museum does
not contain a good series of this Gazelle, and specimens with exact
localities from all parts of its range are much required. Besides
the old mounted examples from the Deccan presented by Col. Sykes and
already alluded to, it possesses only a skin from Sind received from
the Karachi Museum, and several skulls and pairs of horns from the Salt
Range of the Punjâb and Kelat, received in the Hume Collection.
Our figures of this species (Plate LX.) have been prepared by Mr.
Smit--the male from the skin received from the Karachi Museum, and the
female from Col. Sykes’s specimen.
_January,_ 1898.
[Illustration: THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LXI.
_J. Smit lith._ _Hanhart imp._
Speke’s Gazelle.
GAZELLA SPEKEI.
_Published by R. H. Porter._ ]
91. SPEKE’S GAZELLE.
GAZELLA SPEKEI, BLYTH.
[PLATE LXI.]
_Gazella_, sp.?, =Blyth=, J. As. Soc. Beng. xxiv. p. 297 (1856).
“_Gazella cuvieri_, Blyth,” =Speke=, Rep. Zool. Coll. Somali, p.
8 (1860).