Game Animals of India, etc. 



THE GOITRED GAZELLE 



{Gazella subgutturosd) 



Native Names. — Ahu^ Persian ; Kik or Saikik and 

 Jairan^ Turki 



(Plate v, fig. 8) 



Although resembling the goa in the absence of horns 

 in the female, the goitred gazelle is a very different 

 animal, easily distinguished by a peculiar dilateable 

 swelling in the throat of the bucks, the absence of a 

 large white patch on the buttocks, the longer tail, the 

 form of the horns, which are lyrate, with the tips 

 somewhat turned inwards, and the presence of glands on 

 the face below the eyes, and of more or less distinct 

 dark face-markings. In the dilateable larynx, which 

 produces the swelling in the throat, the species is in fact 

 nearly allied to the rather larger Mongolian gazelle, 

 from which it differs in possessing face-markings, as 

 well as by the greater length of the tail, whicli is 

 crested with black or blackish - brown hair, and the 

 longer horns. 



The goitred gazelle is one of those ruminants in 

 which the summer and winter coats are very different, 

 owing to the much greater length and shagginess of the 

 latter, so that there is considerable difference in the 

 appearance of the animal at the two seasons. Li the 

 bucks the lyrate horns diverge near the base, and have 

 the tips turned inwards and converging, so that in a 

 side view they present a not very strongly marked 

 S-like curvature ; and the ridges on the horns are 

 pronounced, and vary in number from sixteen to 

 twenty-five. In the long winter coat the colour is paler 

 than in summer, but the general coloration is as 

 follows : — The upper-parts are rufescent sandy, while 

 the under-portions, parts of the inner and front surfaces 



192 



