THE ARIEL GAZELLE, OR CORA. 



637 



In this attitude the Gazelles will maintain their ground with considerable spirit and 

 pertinacity, seeming to be entirely aware of the advantages which they derive from act- 

 ing in concert, and oftentimes assuming the offensive as well as the defensive mode of 

 action. 



The eye of the Gazelle is large, soft, and lustrous, and has been long celebrated by 

 the poets of its own land as the most flattering simile of a woman's eye. The color of this 

 pretty little animal is a light fawn upon the back, deepening into dark brown in a wide 

 band which edges the flanks, and forms a line of demarcation between the yellow- 

 brown of the upper portions of the body and the pure white of the abdomen. The 

 face is rather curiously marked with two stripes of contrasting colors, one a dark black- 

 brown line that passes from the eye to the curves of the mouth, and the other a white 

 streak that begins at the horns and extends as far as the muzzle. The hinder quarters, 

 too, are marked with white, is very perceptible when the animal is walking directly from 

 the spectator. 



ARIEL GAZELLE, OR CORA. 



THERE is considerable difficulty in assigning the Antelopes to their proper position 

 in the animal kingdom, and in many instances zoologists are sadly bewildered in their 

 endeavors to ascertain to whether a certain animal is entitled to the rank of a separate 

 species, or whether it can only be considered as a variety of some species already 

 acknowledged. , Such is the case with the ARIEL GAZELLE, an animal which is now 

 determined to be merely a variety of the preceding animal, and not entitled to take 

 rank as an independent species. 



This beautiful little creature is very similar to the Dorcas Gazelle in general ap- 

 pearance, but is much darker in all its tintings, the back and upper portions of the 

 body being a dark fawn, and the stripe along the flanks almost black. 



The Ariel is found in Syria and Arabia, and as it is not only a most graceful and 

 elegant animal in appearance, but is also docile and gentle in temper, it is held in great 

 estimation as a domestic pet, and may be frequently seen running about the houses at its 

 own will. So exquisitely graceful are the movements of the Ariel Gazelle, and with such 

 light activity does it traverse the ground, that it seems almost to set at defiance the laws 

 of gravitation, and, like the fabled Camilla, to be able to tread the grass without bending 



