VOL. LXI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. IIQ 



diately fell down upon their fore-knees ; and sometimes they would do so when 

 I came before them ; but as they never darted, I so little thought this posture 

 meant hostility, that I rather supposed it expressive of a timid or obsequious 

 humility.* 



The female differs so much from the male, that we should scarcely suppose 

 them to be the same species. She is much smaller, both in height and thickness. 

 In her shape, and in her yellowish colour, she very much resembles deer ; and 

 has no horns. She has 4 nipples, and is supposed to go Q months with young. 

 She commonly has one at a birth, and sometimes twins. The young male nyl- 

 ghau is like the female in colour, and therefore like a fawn. 



Of late years several of this species, both male and female, have been brought 

 to England. The first were sent from Bombay, by Governor Cromelen, as a 

 present to Lord dive: they arrived in August 1767. They were male and fe- 

 male, and continue to breed every year. Afterwards two were brought over, and 

 presented to the queen by Mr. Sullivan. From her majesty's desire to encourage 

 every useful or curious inquiry in natural knowledge. Dr. H. was permitted to 

 keep these 2 for some time; which enabled him to describe them, and to get a 

 correct picture made ; and with his brother's assistance to dissect tlie dead animal, 

 and preserve the skin and skeleton. At all the places in India, where we have 

 settlements, they are rarities, brought from the distant interior parts of the 

 country, as presents to nabobs and great men. Lord Clive, General Carnac, 

 Mr. Walsh, Mr. Watts, and many other gentlemen, who have seen much of 

 India, say they never saw them wild. So far as Dr. H. has yet found, Bernier is 

 the only author who has even mentioned them.-^ In the 4th vol. of his Memoirs, 

 he gives an account of a journey which he undertook, ann. 1664, from Delhi to 

 the province of Cachemire, with the mogul Aurengzeb, who went to that ter- 

 restrial paradise, as it is esteemed by the Indians, to avoid the heat of the sum- 



• The intrepidity and force with which they dart against any object, may be conceived from the 

 following anecdote, of the finest and largest of those animals that has ever been seen in England.. 

 The violence which he did to himself was supposed to occasion his death, which happened soon after. 

 A poor labouring man, without knowing that the animal was near him, and therefore neither meaning 

 to offend, nor suspecting the danger, came up near to the outside of the pales of the inclosure ; the 

 nyl-ghau, with the quickness of lightning, darted against the wood-work, with such violence, that 

 he broke it to pieces ; and broke off one of his horns close to the root. From this piece of history 

 and further inquiry, I was satisfied that the animal is vicious and fierce in the rutting season, however 

 gentle and tame at other times.— Orig. 



"t" Since the reading of this paper, I have received the following information from Dr. Maty. In 

 the 4th vol. of Valentyn's description of the East Indies, published in Low Dutch, 1727, under the 

 article of Batavia, p. 231, I find among the uncommon animals kept at the castle, this short indica- 

 tion, ' There was a beast, of the size and colour of a Danish ox, but less heavy, pointed towards the 

 mouth, ash-grey, and not less than an elk, whose name he bore.' It was a present from th« 

 mogul. — Orig. 



