56 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



for the occupation of the fair-skinned races ; and the appro- 

 priate seat of the devotee is still upon its black and white skin. 

 It is too well known to require any minute description. Suffice 

 it to say, that not even in Africa the land of antelopes is 

 there any species which surpasses the " black buck " in love- 

 liness or grace. In Central India, although this antelope 

 attains the full size of body, the horns of the buck (the female 

 is hornless and of a fawn colour) rarely exceed a length of 22 

 inches. I have shot one with horns 24-^ inches, and seen a 

 pair that measured 26 inches. The longest horns are probably 

 attained in Giijerat, and about Bhurtpur in Northern India. 

 In all the corn districts of Central India it is found in con- 

 siderable herds, and does much damage to the young crops. 

 I have seen herds in the Sagar country, immediately after 

 the mutiny of 1857, when they were little molested, which 

 must have numbered a thousand or more individuals. A 

 tolerable shot could at that time kill almost any number he 

 chose. In most cultivated districts, tracts of the poorer land 

 are kept under grass for cattle-grazing, &c, and these pre- 

 serves are generally the favourite mid-day resorts and the 

 breeding-grounds of the antelopes. Thence in the evening 

 they troop out in squadrons on to the cultivated lands in the 

 vicinity ; and all the night long continue grazing on the tender 

 wheat shoots, returning in the grey of the morning to their 

 safe retreat. Many will, however, remain in the fields the 

 whole day, sleeping and grazing at intervals, unless driven off 

 by the cultivators. In such places the voices of the watchers 

 in the fields will be heard in the still night shouting continu- 

 ously at the antelopes ; but they seldom succeed in effecting 

 more than to move them about from field to field, doing more 

 damage probably than if they were left alone, for a buck killed 

 in the morning will always be found filled nearly to bursting 



