Game Animals of India, etc. 



of the head, upper-parts of the body, and outer sides of 

 the limbs is yellowish fawn, while the under-parts are 

 white ; a pale band runs in the fawn a short distance 

 above the sharp line of division from the white. In 

 old bucks the colour of the upper-parts is blackish 

 brown, passing almost into black in aged individuals ; 

 the nape of the neck is, however, always brownish 

 rufous, and the front and sides, as well as the face, 

 with the exception of an irregular white patch round 

 each eye, are blackish brown. With the acquisition of 

 the black coat, the light lateral streak disappears from 

 the flanks of old bucks. Information is required as to 

 the age at which bucks begin to acquire their sable 

 dress, and also as to whether this is done by all. A 

 mounted specimen from Madras in the British Museum, 

 which appears to be adult, exhibits scarcely any trace of 

 blackness, and the writer has been informed that such 

 a condition is common in Southern India. Colonel 

 Heber Percy states, indeed, in the "Badminton Library," 

 that many full-grown bucks with good heads in all 

 parts of India never seem to turn black at all, although 

 the master-buck of a herd is always so at the proper 

 season. He adds, on the authority of Major Fitz- 

 Herbert, that the master-buck, with the change of coat 

 that takes place after the rutting-season in the spring, 

 turns brown, regaining his full sable hue at the close of 

 the rains. While he is in the brown dress he resigns 

 the charge of the herd to a younger buck, who remains 

 black. Other observers believe that all the bucks 

 become more or less brown during the hot weather. 



The blackbuck is exclusively Indian, occurring 

 locally from the foot of the Himalaya to the neighbour- 

 hood of Cape Comorin, but not crossing the Palk 

 Strait into Ceylon. In a transverse direction its range 

 extends from the Punjab to Lower Assam, while its 

 southern limit appears to be Point Calimere ; it is 

 unknown on the Malabar coast to the south of the 

 neighbourhood of Surat, as it is in the swamps of the 



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