Mongolian Gazelle 197 



portions are bright yellow or rufous. Elsewhere the colour is white ; the 

 whole of the thighs and buttocks, as well as the flanks and limbs, being of 

 this hue. Relatively to the size of the body, the horns of the bucks are 

 short ; they are heavily and closely ridged tor the greater part of their 

 length, and after running parallel with one another for some distance, they 

 first diverge gradually, and then slightly incurve at the tips. Owing to 

 skulls of other species having been mistaken for those of this gazelle, horn- 

 measurements are not to be relied upon ; but it is probable that good horns 

 grow to about twelve or thirteen inches. The skull may always be distin- 

 guished from that of the goitred gazelle by the pointed, instead of notched, 

 nasal bones. 



The distributional area of this very remarkable species includes the 

 greater part of Northern and Eastern Mongolia, as well as the southern 

 confines ot Russian Transbaikalia. It is essentially a desert animal, and in 

 the Kuldja district its habitat is defined from that of the forest-lovino- 

 Yarkand race of the goitred gazelle by a single mountain range. Prince 

 Demidoft and Mr. P. Church are two of the few sportsmen resident in 

 England by whom this gazelle has been seen in its native haunts. In 

 the exhibition galleries of the British Museum it is represented by an old 

 and wretchedly mounted specimen which stands in urgent need of replacing 

 by a better example. 



For an authentic account of the habits of this gazelle naturalists are 

 indebted to Dr. G. Radde, of Tiflis, who travelled in South-Eastern Siberia 

 during the years 1855 to 1858, and published the result of his researches in 

 1862, under the title of Re/sen im S'uden von dst-Sihir/c/i. Accordino- to this 

 narrative, the distributional area of the present species, like that of the 

 saiga, has been steadily contracting throughout a considerable portion of 

 the century just ended ; and at the present day there are few localities on 

 the southern confines of Russian Transbaikalia where it is still a permanent 

 resident. In winter these gazelles are to be met with in enormous herds. 



