292 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



meets with a fate which has no poetry in it, for she is 

 the favourite morsel of the lion and the leopard. It 

 might have been thought that they would have pre- 

 ferred larger and more fleshy game, but, like true 

 epicures, the high flavour of the gazelle is preferred to 

 size. The falcon is often used by men for catching 

 them, as even the swift greyhound cannot overtake 

 them ; they are also driven into traps by surrounding 

 them in the manner of a battue. Their skin is also 

 used in making a peculiar sort of drum. 



The Pigmy Antelope inhabits some parts of Africa, 

 and in size corresponds with the small deer of Ceylon. 

 I never saw so beautiful a little creature, appearing 

 more like a fable than a reality. Their tiny black horns 

 are but slightly curved inwards, their legs are not 

 thicker than the quill with which I am now writing, 

 and yet all the characters of the antelope are strongly 

 marked. The first I saw had been brought to my 

 uncle, and, as I entered his room, I stood quite still at 

 the door with surprise at this exquisite tiny creature, 

 who remained with one leg up, ready to dart away with 

 the speed of lightning from the intruder, for whose 

 approach he was listening. I feared to move, lest the 

 vision should disappear ; but death soon made it fade 

 away altogether. Captain Fisher, of the Navy, tried to 

 take a pair of these fairy-like creatures to England. 

 They were kept in his own cabin ; he gave them all the 

 goat's milk which had been provided for his own use, 

 and took infinite pains to shelter them from cold or 

 accident. He succeeded in getting them as far as the 

 Channel, where they ate some pieces of cork which had 

 been dropped on the floor, and died. I was equally 

 unfortunate with a beautiful spotted antelope, which was 



