64 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



found him to be. Many a glorious day did I afterwards pass 

 with him in the pursuit of nobler game than black bucks. 



' The chikdrd, or Indian gazelle,* is another antelope very 

 common in Central India. It is called often the " ravine 

 deer " by sportsmen ; and, as regards the first part of the 

 name, is so far well denoted. Its favourite haunts are the 

 banks of the shallow ravines that often intersect the plain 

 country in the neighbourhood of rivers, and seam the slopes 

 of the higher eminences rising out of the great central table- 

 land. These are generally thinly clothed with low thorny 

 bushes, on the young shoots and pods of which it browses like 

 the domestic goat. Of course it is wrong to call it a " deer," 

 which term properly belongs only to the solid-horned Cervidce. 

 Considerably smaller than the black antelope, the gazelle also 

 differs much from it in habits. It prefers low jungle to the 

 open plain ; and trusts more to its watchfulness and activity 

 than to speed, which however it also possesses in a high 

 degree. It is very rare to catch a gazelle, or still more a herd 

 of them, off their guard; and it is surprising how, on the 

 least alarm, the little creatures manage to disappear as if. by 

 magic. They have probably just hopped into the bottom of a 

 ravine, sped along it like lightning for about a hundred yards, 

 and are regarding you, intent and motionless, from behind the 

 straggling bushes on the next rising ground. Should you 

 follow them up they will probably repeat the same manoeuvre, 

 but this time putting three or four ravines between you and 

 them instead of one. They also resort to the cultivation to 

 feed, though not so regularly as the black antelope ; and 

 their numbers are not sufficient to do any notable damage. 

 In the morning they may often be found picking their way 

 back to the network of ravines where they stay during the 



* Gazella Bennettii. 



