The Chinkara Gazelle 



feeding constantly switching their tails from side to 

 side, these gazelles when frightened invariably start off 

 at once at a racing gallop, without the preliminary 

 bounds so characteristic of their cousin the Indian 

 antelope. Their speed is so great, and their endurance 

 so marked, that it is seldom that they can be overtaken 

 by dogs, although such a feat has been occasionally 

 accomplished. The natives ot certain parts of India 

 were formerly, at any rate, in the habit of hunting the 

 chinkara with the aid of the saker falcon, the bird being 

 first flown at the animal, so as to strike it on the head 

 and render it confused, when the greyhounds were 

 slipped to rush in and pull it down. 



Whether the Baluchi chinkara is entitled to rank as 

 a distinct race may be open to doubt, but as it has 

 received a name, it may be alluded to as Gazella hennetti 

 fuscifrons. It was originally named by Dr. Blanford in 

 1873 on the evidence of a female head obtained by Sir 

 O. B. St. John at Jalk, in Northern Baluchistan. Its 

 claim to distinction is that the horns of this sex are 

 distinctly, although not very prominently, ridged or 

 ringed, and that the darker portions of the face are 

 dark brown instead of rufous. When the male was 

 discovered, it was found not to differ perceptibly from 

 the ordinary Indian chinkara, except that the horns are 

 a little more curved backwards, anci slightly more lyrate 

 when viewed from the front. From Baluchistan the 

 chinkara extends to the head of the Persian Gulf in the 

 neighbourhood of Bushire. There it inhabits the low 

 country, as it does in Baluchistan, not ranging above 

 the 3000 feet level, where it is replaced by the goitred 

 gazelle, easily recognised, even at a comparatively long 

 distance, by its lighter colour. 



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