INDIAN SHOOTING 345 



Indus, as far as Ladak is concerned, its limits in Chinese 

 Thibet being at present unknown. 



Goa do not appear to he down much in the middle of the 

 day, and in ^lay and June, at all events, are constantly en the 

 move. They appear to resort to particular spots for dropping 

 their dung, and little heaps of it may be noticed wherever goa 

 are at all plentiful. 



As they are generally found on the grass flats that fringe 

 the streams, or on some almost level plateau, stalking them is 

 by no means easy, though they are not generally very shy, 

 will occasionally allow considerable liberties to be taken in 

 approaching them, and will stop to look after a fallen com- 

 panion. The Tartars say that they can be stalked down wind, 

 but they say this also of the Thibetan antelope, and Major 

 Ward's advice on this point is sound : ' Believe it, reader, if 

 you like, but do not try it often.' 



XLVn. INDIAN ANTELOPE [Antilope Bezoartica) 

 Generally ' Heran,'' or ' Mir iig,'' from the Sanscrit * Mirga ' 



This is the well-known black buck, which is found all over 

 India at intervals from the extreme south to as far north as the 

 Jhelum, following the southern bank of that river till (joined 

 by the Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej) it flows into the Indus, which 

 then becomes the black buck's northern boundary. Essentially 

 a plains-loving animal, it avoids hills and heavy forest, but 

 is often found in the long grass which covers the islands and 

 banks of many of the large rivers. Though considerable tracts of 

 apparently suitable country do not seem to hold a single herd, 

 special districts where antelope are always to be found seem 

 to crop up unexpectedly all over India. In the North -West 

 Provinces, and along the borders of the Bikanir Desert between 

 Rajpootana and the Punjab, it appears to be more generally 

 plentiful than in the rest of India, and the horns in these dis- 

 tricts grow longer. Sanderson says, in ' Thirteen Years among 

 the Wild Beasts of India,' that an i8-in. horn is a decided 



