CLASSIFICATION OF THE GAZELLES. 13 



not much more than a foot in length, flattened from side to side, with a notched anterior margin. The 

 body colour is a fawn-brown ; the hair of the neck, chest, and shoulders being of great length and 

 reaching to the knees. In the female the horns are much smaller and of lighter colour. Accord- 

 ing to Captain Kinloch, " the Tahr is, like the Markhoor, a forest-loving animal, and although 

 it sometimes resorts to the rocky summits of the hills, it generally prefers the steep slopes 

 which are more or less clothed with trees. Female Tahr may be frequently found on open ground, 

 but old males hide a great deal in the thickest jungle, lying during the heat of the day under the 

 ;shade of trees or overhanging rocks. Nearly perpendicular hills, with dangerous precipices, where the 

 forest consists of oak and ringall cane, are the favourite haunts of the old Tahr, who climb with 

 ease over ground where one would hardly imagine that any animal could find a footing. Tahr ground, 

 indeed, is about the worst walking I know, almost rivalling Markhoor ground ; the only advantage 

 being that, bad as it is, there are generally some bushes or grass to hold on to." 



THE GAZELLES.* 



Under the title of Gazelles are included several strikingly elegant, small, slender, sandy-coloured 

 species of ruminating animals, in which the males always, and the females in most cases, carry horns, 

 which are transversely ringed, and vary considerably in the direction which they take, many having 

 them curved in such a way that the two together form a lyre-shaped figure, at the same time that in 

 others they are nearly straight, turned slightly backwards or forwards, and diverging or converging at 

 the tips. Where present, the horns of the females are more slender than in the corresponding males. 



The Gazelles inhabit Africa, Arabia, Persia, India, and Central Asia only. They rarely exceed 

 thirty inches in height at the shoulder ; the largest, the Swift Antelope of Pennant (Gazella mohr), 

 reaching nearly three feet. In all the Gazelles the face is marked with a white band running from the 

 outer side of the base of each horn nearly down to the upper end of each nostril, cutting off a dark 

 triangular central patch, and bordered externally by a diffused dark line. The under surface of the 

 abdomen is white, and there is a dark line traversing the flank which bounds this. The rump is also 

 white, which in many cases encroaches more or less upon the haunches. 



Of the twenty species of Gazelles known to naturalists, only a few of the best known will be 

 specially mentioned here. By Sir Victor Brooke they have been thus arranged, in accordance with 

 certain easily ascertained distinctive features in coloration and shape of horn : 



I. BACK UNSTRIPED. 



A. The white colour of the rump not encroaching on the fawn colour of the haunches. 



a. Both sexes bearing horns. 

 1. HORNS LYRATE OR SEMI-LYRATE. 



The Gazelle (Arabia and N.E. Africa). 

 Isabelline Gazelle (Kordofan). 

 Korin (Senegal). 



2. HORNS NOT LYRATE. 



Sundevall's Gazelle (Sennaar). 

 Black-tailed Gazelle (Bogosland). 



Cuvier's Gazelle (Morocco). 

 Small-horned Gazelle (Senaar). 

 Speke's Gazelle (Somali Country). 

 Muscat Gazelle (Muscat). 



b. Females hornless. 

 Persian Gazelle. 



Arabian Gazelle (S. Arabia). 

 Bennett's Gazelle (India). 

 Dusky-faced Gazelle (Persia). 



Ladakh Gazelle. 



Mongolian Gazelle. 



B. The white colour of the rump projects forward in an angle into the fawn colour of the haunches. 

 Dama Antelope (S. Nubia). I Soemmerring's Antelope (E. Africa). 



Swift Antelope (Senegal). Grant's Gazelle (Ugogo). 



II. BACK WITH A MEDIAN WHITE STRIPE. 



Spring-bok (S. Africa). 



The GAZELLE par excellence, from Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, stands scarcely two feet high. The 

 elegance of its proportions are too well known to need description. The beauty of its eyes is not to be 



* The genus Gazella, 

 97 



