The Nilgai, or Blue Bull 



point of view of trophies, it is scarcely worth powder 

 and bullet. This poor horn-development is the more 

 remarkable from the circumstance that the animal is a 

 near relative of the elands, kudus, bongo, and bush- 

 bucks of Africa, the males, or in some cases both 

 sexes, of which carry large and graceful horns, while 

 the animals themselves are among the most beautiful of 

 their tribe. No less noteworthy is the fact that in past 

 times eland and kudu, as testified by their fossil 

 remains, were the companions of nilgai on the plains of 

 Northern India ; and the reason for the disappearance 

 •of the two former from that country and the survival 

 of the latter forms one of the many unsolved problems 

 presented by zoology. As the nilgai is unknown in 

 Ceylon, it might have been considered a comparatively 

 recent immigrant into India, but since its fossil remains 

 are found at the foot of the Himalaya, and (at a more 

 recent epoch in the valley of the Narbada), while the 

 genus is unknown in any other country, it is evidently 

 an ancient inhabitant of the north of India, which has 

 probably only made its way into the south of the 

 peninsula at a comparatively recent date. 



Despite the fact that this sex is fawn-coloured, the 

 name nilgai properly refers to the female, and means 

 "blue cow"; the word nil (pronounced neel) being 

 again met with in " Nilgiris," and also as the general 

 term for indigo. Sportsmen generally call the animal 

 " blue bull," which is the translation of the Hindustani 

 nilgao. 



The nilgai is such a peculiar and ungainly-looking 

 animal that it cannot be mistaken for any other 

 antelope. Like most of its African relatives, it is only 

 the male that bears horns. The horns are smooth, 

 short, nearly straight, and directed upwards and back- 

 wards ; the section being triangular at the base, but 

 becoming circular near the tip. The front edge bears 

 a distinct keel, which in old bulls extends forwards and 

 inwards till the bases of the horns are almost in contact. 



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