ITS SWIFTNESS AND COLOUR. 209 



is extremely wary, specially in those districts where 

 it has learnt to fear man ; on the banks of the Murui- 

 ussu it is a little less timid. Its swiftness is amaz- 

 ine ; it bounds alonof like an india-rubber ball, and 

 when startled seems absolutely to fly. 



During their breeding season, which begins to- 

 wards the close of December and lasts a month, the 

 males chase one another from their herds, but we 

 never saw them fighting like the orongo, nor did луе 

 ever hear them utter any sound other than a snort 

 (like that of the kara-sulta) on seeing a man ; and 

 the does when startled give a short loud cry very 

 similar to that of the young pygarg. They scrape 

 themselves trenches a foot deep, in which they lie at 

 night (and probably during the day), and in these we 

 found heaps of their droppings. 



This little antelope is more difficult to shoot 

 than the orong-o, besides beino; much scarcer and 

 extremely tenacious of life. Its ashy-grey colour, 

 exactly resembling the soil, renders it almost invisible 

 at a distance, and it is only by its conspicuous white 

 rump, and its snort, that you may discover its pres- 

 ence. By twilight it sees badly, and suffers the 

 hunter to approach quite close. In conclusion, we 

 may remark that both species are swift runners over 

 smooth ice. 



The only beasts of prey that we saw in Northern 

 Tibet were wolves and steppe-foxes, both in great 

 numbers. 



The Tibetan wolf {L7Lpus Chanco) is about the 

 size of the common wolf (from which it only differs 

 VOL. ir. p 



