Chousingha, or Four-horned Antelope 



cornis suh-quadricornutus. Kathiawar specimens have 

 frequently but one pair of horns. 



The chousingha is the Indian representative of the 

 duiker-boks of Africa ; its affinities to the latter being 

 indicated, among other features, by the circumstance 

 that the face-gland takes the form of a narrow deep 

 slit on the side of the face below the eye, that of the 

 duiker-boks forming a narrow bare line perforated at 

 intervals by pores. The muzzle of this antelope is 

 bare and moist, the tail is short, and the female has 

 four teats. In size and build the animal may be com- 

 pared to a small gazelle, the height at the shoulder being 

 about 25 inches, and the weight some 40 pounds. The 

 general colour of the short and stiff hair is dull rufous 

 brown, becoming whitish beneath, with the muzzle, 

 the outer surface of the ears, and a line down the front 

 of each leg blackish brown, and some white on the 

 outer side of the pasterns. The doe may be dis- 

 tinguished trom a female Indian gazelle by the absence 

 of the face-markings of the latter. More difficulty 

 may be experienced in distinguishing between a doe 

 chousingha and a female hog-deer, but the two can 

 always be separated by the absence in the former of 

 gland-tufts on the hind-legs. 



The four-horned antelope is exclusively Indian, 

 occurring locally over a great portion of the peninsula, 

 from the foot of the Himalaya southwards. It is 

 unknown both in Ceylon and to the eastward of the 

 Bay of Bengal ; as is true of all the four species of 

 Indian antelopes, namely the nilgai, the chousingha, 

 the blackbuck, and the chinkara. Probably the 

 Burmese countries, from their moist climate, are 

 unsuited to antelopes of this type, which prefer dry, 

 open districts ; but whether the same explanation will 

 account for their absence from Ceylon is not easy to say. 



In India the chousingha is to some extent local, 

 being unknown on the plains of the Ganges, and 

 likewise on the Malabar coast of Madras. It has been 



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