468 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
there is no reason for separating it from Gaze//a. He says: “The goa 
avoid rocky and steep ground, preferring the undulating plains and 
gently sloping valleys. Early in the season they are to be found in small 
herds, frequently close to the snow; as this melts they appear to disperse 
themselves over the higher ground, being often found singly or in twos 
and threes.” 
GENUS PANTHOLOPS 
Between the gazelles and antelopes proper comes the chiru 
(Pantholops Hodgsonit), though strictly speaking it is, with the saiga 
antelope (Saiga Tartarica), though in a somewhat less degree, connected 
by cranial affinities with the sheep. The saiga is notable for its highly- 
arched nose and inflated nostrils, which are so much lengthened as to 
lite necessitate the animal’s 
ees. walking backwards when 
it: feeds;. “The cfr ms 
not quite so developed in 
this respect. The skull of 
the saiga is unique among 
ruminants, and those who 
wish to become acquain- 
ted with its most minute 
osteological details should 
refer to an article on this 
animal by Dr. James 
Murie: in the * PZ 
1870, p. 457. I can only 
here give avery brief sum- 
mary of the chief charac- 
teristics. Looked at in profile, the nasal bones we find to be remarkably 
short, the face being hollowed out, as it were, between the upper nasal 
cartilage and the very long and narrow maxillary and pre-maxillary bones; 
great vertical depth from the top of the nasal to the bottom of the 
Saiga Antelope. 
maxillary bones; a very prominent bovine orbit, above and a little - 
behind which the short tapering horns of a gazelle type are placed. 
The lower nasal cartilage is prolonged on to the fibrous cord of the 
nares, and the profile view of the animal in life is that of a grotesquely 
Roman-nosed antelope with swollen nostrils. Its nearest relative in ~ 
India is the chiru, which has certain points of resemblance. The nose 
is but slightly arched, but the nostrils are more swollen than in 
4 
antelopes as a rule. ‘This is not sufficiently rendered in an otherwise — 
admirable coloured plate in Blanford’s ‘Scientific Results of the Second 
Yarkand Mission,’ but it is more apparent in the photograph of the head 
~~ 
& 
“ 
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