CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 



539 



FEMALE GAZELLE. 



The Kevel or Flat-horned Antilope, A. Kevella of Pallas, is only the young of the Gazelle. 



The Ariel Gazelle, Antilope Arabica — the A. leptoceros of F. Cuvier — is one of the most cel- 

 ebrated of antilopes; it is about two feet high at the shoulder; its limbs are slender but vigorous, 

 and all its actions are light and spirited. In full flight it lays the horns back nearly on the shoul- 

 ders, and seems to skim over the level plain almost without touching it. The general color above 

 is dark fawn or yellowish-brown ; the under parts are white, divided from the color of the upper 

 parts by a black or deep brown band along the flanks. 



This beautiful species inhabits Arabia, Syria, and Persia, where it is seen in large herds, bound- 

 ing over the desert with amazing fleetness. Its eyes are peculiarly large, dark, and lustrous, and 

 have supplied a simile to the Oriental poets and orators ; indeed, to say of a woman, u she has the 

 eyes of a gazelle" is a most flattering commendation. It is an object of the chase in Arabia, as 

 it was among the ancient Egyptians, whose exciting delineations of it are abundant. Its flesh is 

 said to be excellent. So swift are these animals, that the greyhound unaided cannot overtake 

 them; the falcon, therefore, is brought into service. The huntsman advances as near as possible 

 to the herd, the dogs are then slipped and the falcon thrown off; the individual which the dogs 

 have singled is attacked by the falcon, which is trained to strike at the head and eyes, so as to 

 confuse the game and check its speed, thereby enabling the dogs to come up to it. 



Burckhardt informs us that on the eastern frontier of Syria are several places allotted to the 

 hunting of this animal, or rather for its entrapment or destruction. An open space on the plain, 

 about one mile and a half square, is inclosed on three sides by a wall of loose stones too high for 

 the gazelle to leap over. Gaps are left in different parts of the wall, and at each gap a deep ditch 

 is sunk on the outside. The inclosure is situated near some rivulet or spring to which the gazelles 

 resort in summer. When the sport is to begin, many peasants assemble and watch till they see 

 a herd of gazelles advancing from a distance toward the inclosure, into which they drive them. 

 The gazelles, frightened by the shouts of the people and the discharge of the fire-arms, endeavor 

 to leap over the wall, but can only effect this at the gaps, where they fall into .the ditch outside 

 » and are easily taken, sometimes by hundreds. The chief of the herd always leaps, first, and the 

 others follow him one by one. The gazelles thus captured are immediately killed, and their flesh 

 sold to the Arabs and neighboring Fellahs. Of the skin a kind of parchment is made, and used 

 to cover the small drum with which the Syrians accompany some musical instruments or the 

 • voice. 



