The Goitred Gazelle 



of the legs, and the buttocks up to but not including 

 the tail, are white ; the white and the fawn being 

 distinctly defined, and separated by a darker band both 

 on the flanks and the buttocks. In the winter coat the 

 face is also often more or less white, and always shows 

 a longitudinal stripe of fawn below each eye, while 

 there may be a more or less distinct dark nose-streak. 

 In old animals these dark face-markings differ from 

 those of other members of the genus except the Marica 

 gazelle of Arabia (in which the females are horned) in 

 that the central dark band, when present, is interrupted 

 on the forehead, which is thus pure white. In the 

 summer coat of the typical race there is a pale line 

 above the dark band on the flanks. The tail, which 

 is of the length obtaining in ordinary gazelles, and 

 thus unlike the stump to which it is reduced in 

 the Mongolian species, is blackish brown or black on 

 the upper surface. From 24 to 27 inches is the 

 approximate shoulder-height. 



Such is the general description of the species, 

 but there are at least three local races of Gazella 

 subgutturosa ; and it is owing to the existence of these 

 local forms that the animal is called the goitred gazelle 

 instead of Persian gazelle. The reason for this is that 

 if we call the species the Persian gazelle, and then 

 speak of one variety as the Yarkand, and a second as the 

 Altai gazelle, it looks as though we were dealing with 

 three distinct species. By the other plan the species is 

 designated as the goitred gazelle, while its races are 

 respectively distinguished as the Persian, Yarkand, 

 and Altai goitred gazelles. 



It is to the typical or Persian race (G. gutturosa 

 typica)^ as the only one found within the area treated of 

 in this volume, that attention is directed. Fig. 28 

 represents a buck from Tehran, in the winter coat, 

 which was living in the park at Woburn Abbey in 

 1899, and is now mounted in the British Museum. 

 The condition of the horns, in which the ridges are 



193 o 



