ANTELOPES. 



141 



importance, in an economical sense, of clear and 

 comprehensive views in natural history. The notices 

 of the African antelopes must be mere matters of 

 detail, for to that only the information reaches ; and, 

 in many instances, it is most imperfect even there. 



The GAZELLE (A. dorcas~). This is rather a 

 small, but a very beautiful species, and one which 

 has been long- known, and much celebrated. Its 

 principal locality at present is the north of Africa, 

 between the cultivated country along the shore of the 

 Mediterranean and on the banks of the Nile, and the 

 Great Desert ; but it has been already noticed, that 

 other species are probably only climatal varieties of 

 this one. The specific name dorcas, literally means 

 " bright-eye ;" and we accordingly find that, in 

 the poetry of the Arabs and its imitations, the 

 eye of the gazelle is the type and standard of 

 beauty in that organ ; and, it must be admitted, 

 that the comparison is much finer than any of those 

 in which inanimate substances are introduced as 

 expressive of the lustre of eyes. But the name has 

 other meanings, and alludes to the keen sight of 

 the animal, and also to its darting along like a 

 thrown spear or djerrid. 



The gazelle is a very beautiful animal, the most 

 gracefully formed of all the antelopes, indeed of all 

 the mammalia. It is light and slender, and yet its 

 structure is such as to indicate the very maximum 

 of agility and strength which can exist in the same 

 weight of body. In form it is the beau ideal of a 

 deer, bearing about the same relation to the finest 

 roebuck as the Belvidere Apollo does to man. If any 

 of its proportions had been thicker, the impression 

 would have been that it had weight to carry ; and 

 if thinner, that it was liable to fatigue. But so 

 perfectly is the gazelle formed, that it gives no 

 impression either of burden or of fatigue. Imagina- 

 tion cannot limit the extent of its bound, or the 

 number of them that it can take in succession. 



It is rather less than a roebuck, being about three 

 feet and a half in length, one foot nine at the shoulder, 

 and a little higher at the croup. The head and neck 

 are beautifully formed : the forehead slightly rounded ; 

 the eyes large, prominent, dark, and expressive ; the 

 muzzle rather slender ; the ears long, narrow, and 

 pointed ; the horns between nine and ten inches 

 long, gently rounded and lyrated. They are much 

 annulated at their bases, but the annuli disappear on 

 the posterior surfaces about the middle of the 

 length, and a portion at the tips is quite plain. 

 The females are provided with horns as well as 

 the males ; but in them they are smaller, and hence 

 some of those who have followed the trade (rather 

 a common one with regard to this race of animals) 

 of manufacturing an antelope out of a pair of 

 horns, have made a species of the female gazelle, and 

 called it corinne, and other names. With the excep- 

 tion of the knee tufts, and the tail, which is covered 

 with stiff black hair, and ends in a brush, the whole 

 covering of the gazelle is close and smooth ; the 

 anterior part of the head is a reddish fawn-colour, with 

 a dark-brown streak en the nose, and a white one 

 downwards from the root of each horn, over the eye, 

 and along the side of the face. The contrast of these 

 last gives peculiar brilliancy to the dark eyes. The 

 general colour of the upper part is dun, that of the 

 under white, and the two colours are separated by 

 marginal belts of brown, more or less conspicuous. 

 The tints of colour are, however, subject to much 



difference, both in different individuals, and in the 

 same individual at different ages ; so that, in this spe- 

 cies particularly, colour cannot be made a character. 



Gazelles keep the open plains, and browse upon 

 the saline and other pungent plants which they meet 

 with there. They are gregarious, living in consider- 

 able herds ; placing sentinels when they graze, and 

 bounding off apparently in different directions when 

 an alarm is given, but making for a more command- 

 ing ground, and forming a square there, with the 

 females and young in the centre, and the bucks 

 outside on the defensive. The lion and even the 

 panther will, however, attack these squares, crouching 

 forward till within his distance, and then springing upon 

 one with certain aim, upon which the others move 

 off. It is when they resort to the water, however, 

 which is generally in the morning, that antelopes 

 generally, and gazelles among the rest, suffer most 

 from the ravages of beasts of prey. The gazelle is 

 the species which, geographically at least, connects 

 the antelopes of Asia and Africa. 



The ADDAX (A. addax) may be said to inhabit 

 between the gazelle and the African deserts, and 

 probably to follow that line of country through all its 

 bondings and irregularities ; the country near the 

 sources of the Nile appears indeed to be a sort of 

 centre, at which antelopes from the different parts of 

 Africa meet, and possibly form hybrids ; so that 

 single specimens, and especially fragments, from that 

 part of the world, should be received with the 

 greatest caution. 



Addax. 



In point of locality the addax bears nearly the same 

 relation to the gazelle in Africa as the common 

 antelope does in Asia to those species which we have 

 said may perhaps be considered as climatal varieties of 

 the gazelle ; and it is not a little curious, that the 

 addax resembles the common antelope in many of its 

 external characters, though it is larger in size, and 

 differs from it in other particulars. It stands three 

 feet seven inches at the shoulders, and an inch or two 

 more at the croup. Its aspect is fleet and vigorous; 

 its horns are large, spiral, and much annulated. They 

 stand rather wider at the base, and are not quite so 

 thick at the base in proportion to their length ; but 

 still they might readUy bo mistaken for those of the 

 Indian antelopes. The addax, however, has a tuft 

 on the throat, immediately below the chin ; the tail 

 is much more produced, naked for the greater part 

 of its length, and ending in a bunch. The outline of 

 the buttock is also less rounded, and the insertion 

 of the tail is farther down : it is, as one would say, 

 " droop-rumped." The most remarkable difference is 

 in the habit. The common antelope is gregarious, 

 and the old males are rulers. The addax, on the 



