Marica Gazelle 20 1 



pace. I do not know that this curious Httle animal has ever been 

 described before, and am sorry that, being intent on shooting sheep, we 

 did not endeavour to secure one or two specimens. We did not see any of 

 them beyond the Snok steppe, in the valley of the Kobdo, nor on the 

 Kash-Agatch plain, where, however, on our return journey, we bagged 

 several of the larger antelopes. I should estimate the height of the 

 smaller species to be about 20 inches at the withers, roughly speaking, and 

 the coat was of a dark brown hue, growing lighter under the stomach." 



It is difficult to recognise in this description any known species of 

 Central Asian antelope. 



THE MARICA GAZELLE 



[Gaze /Id Diarica) 



This gazelle was described as a distinct species by Mr. O. Thomas' in 

 1897, on the evidence of skins and skulls from the Nejd desert of Central 

 Arabia which were forwarded to the British Museum by Lieut.- Col. 

 Jayakar, who was for a long time resident at Muscat. It is evidently the 

 Arabian representative of the goitred gazelle, from the Persian race of 

 which it is said to differ by its inferior size, paler colour, and the presence 

 of horns in the female. The almost complete absence of face-markings is 

 given as another distinctive character, but since these are extremely 

 variable in the goitred gazelle, this is not a feature ot much importance. 

 Of more value is the presence of horns in the female ; but since it is 

 reported that the female of the goitred gazelle is occasionally horned, this 

 feature appears of less importance than was originally supposed. Hence it 

 may turn out that the marica gazelle is only a local race ot the goitred species. 



This gazelle inhabits the Arabian desert from Nejd to the western 



' jliiiiiuib and Miigiizine of Nutum/ History, scr. 6, vol. xix. p. 162. 



2 D 



