THE WILDEBEESTS 



901 



Distribution ^ e c h us i n gha is found along the foot of the Himalayas from the 

 Punjab to Nipal, and over the greater part of Peninsular India in 

 wooded and hilly country, although it avoids dense jungle. It is unknown in the 

 plain of the Ganges, on the Malabar coast in Madras, and likewise in Ceylon. 



Mr. Blanford writes that the chousingha "differs from all other 

 Habits T ,. , . . - , . , 



Indian antelopes in habits as much as in structure. It is not gregari- 

 ous, very rarely are more than two seen together; it haunts thin forest and bush, 

 and keeps chiefly to undulating or hilly ground. It drinks daily, and is never seen 

 far from water. It is a shy animal, and moves with a peculiar jerky action whether 

 walking or running. The rutting season is in the rains, and the young, one or two 

 in number, are born about January or February." General Kinloch writes that 

 these animals "conceal themselves in long grass or among low bushes, and some- 

 what resemble hares in their habits. They are seldom to be seen out feeding, but usu- 

 ally jump up at the feet of the hunter and bound away at a great pace." Fossil re- 

 mains of the existing species have been discovered in a cave in Madras, and it is 

 believed that the genus is represented in the Pliocene deposits of the Siwalik hills 

 at the foot of the Himalayas. 



WILDEBEESTS 

 Genus Connochcetes 



The last group of the antelopes is represented by the wildebeests and their allies 

 the hartbeests and blesbok, and is mainly confined to Africa, although one spe- 

 cies of hartbeests ranges into Syria. All these antelopes are of large size, and are 

 characterized by the presence of horns in both sexes, as well as by the circumstance 

 that the withers are more or less elevated above the level of the haunches. The 

 muzzle is naked, and there is a small gland below the eye, marked by a tuft of 

 hairs. The tail is long, and the general color mostly uniform. The horns are more 

 or less lyrate or recurved, and at their origin are placed more or less closely together. 

 Unlike those of other antelopes, the bony cores of the horns are honeycombed with 

 cavities, as in the oxen; but the upper molar teeth differ entirely from those of the 

 latter animals, having very narrow crowns, without any additional column on the 

 inner side. 



The wildebeests, or, as they are often called, gnus, are ungainly-looking crea- 

 tures, distinguished by their broad and short heads, in which the muzzle is of great 

 width, and fringed with long bristles, so that the nostrils are separated from one an- 

 other by a considerable interval. The neck is furnished with an erect mane of stiff 

 hairs, and the long tail is thickly haired throughout its length. The nearly smooth, 

 cylindrical horns are situated on the highest point of the skull, and curve outward, 

 or out ward and downward, and then bend upward near the tips. In the young wilde- 

 beest the horns are, however, straight and diverging, placed at some distance below 

 the highest point of the skull, and separated from one another by a wide space at 

 the base covered with hair. These straight horns persist as the tips of those of the 

 adult, the curved basal portion of the latter being a subsequent development. In 



