S3 ZOOLOGY OF INDIA. 



dant coating of wool, a provision which beautifully coincides 

 with its position as a mountain-dweller in a cold and icy 

 clime. The characters of the female are still unknown. 

 The male is nearly six feet long, and measures about three 

 feet in height at the shoulder ; the croup is higher than the 

 withers; the horns are black, slender, slightly lyre-shaped, 

 annulated, with sharp points turned forwards. The hair is 

 thick and coarse, but conceals beneath it a finer covering 

 of downy wool. The face and legs are dark, the neck and 

 back grayish slate-colour, passing to rufous, and the belly, 

 insides of the limbs, and tip of the tail are white. 



The forests of Hindostan produce the chickara or four- 

 homed antelope. According to General Hardwicke, this 

 species inhabits the forests and hilly tracts along the west- 

 ern provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. It is a wild 

 and agile creature, incapable of being tamed unless when 

 taken young. It is about twenty inches in height, and 

 measures two feet nine inches from the nose to the root of 

 the tail, which is about five inches long. The larger pair 

 of horns are smooth, erect, slightly inclined forwards, and 

 somewhat divergent, — their length about three inches. 

 About an inch and a half in front of these horns, rise a very 

 short stumpy pair, scarcely an inch in length, and about an 

 inch and a half in circumference. The general colour of 

 this animal is uniform bright bay on all the upper parts. 

 The chin, under-line of the neck, abdomen, and insides of 

 the thighs incline to white, with a mixture of sand-colour. 

 The female is of a lighter colour than the male, and is un- 

 provided with horns.* It does not clearly appear whether 

 the various contributions which have been made towards 

 the elucidation of the history and structure of this animal 

 by General Hardwicke, MM. F. Cuvier and Duvaucel, and 

 Drs. Leach and De Blainville, apply to one and the same 

 species. Is the Aniilope quadricornis distinct from the An- 

 tilope chickara ? And if so, to which of the species does 

 the Telracerus striaticornis of Dr. Leach belong? 



We shall conclude our notices of this tribe by introducing 

 the nyl-ghau to the attention of the reader ; and we place 

 it in its present position, rather in accordance with the cus- 

 tomary practice than from any conviction of its natural alH- 

 ance with the antelopes. Its name signifies blue-ox, and 



* Linn. Trans., vol. xiv. 



