After Antelope in Tibet 239 



may, like the writer, fall a prey. I had had a shot 

 at a buck, and to all appearance missed him clean. 

 I had watched him gallop away till he had put 

 a respectable distance between us, and was de- 

 bating in my mind whether he was worth follow- 

 ing, or whether it would not save time and temper 

 to look for a fresh beast. Suddenly I saw him start 

 madly galloping straight towards me. On he came 

 at full split, when all of a sudden his legs seemed 

 to crumple up beneath him, and he came crash 

 down on the ground as if he had had a bullet 

 through the brain. I had seen nothing like it 

 before, and the analogy of a " towered bird " at 

 once occurred to me. I thought I must have hit 

 him with the small Mannlicher bullet in some vital 

 spot, but that the wound had taken a little time 

 to prove fatal, or the exertion of galloping away 

 might have caused some further injury. Anyhow 

 he was dead, I thought, and the reason of his queer 

 behaviour could now be ascertained. I hastened up 

 towards him, when what was my surprise to see 

 him on his legs again lolloping gaily away ! The 

 explanation seems to be in a small stinging grub 

 found underneath Tibetan antelopes' skins. What 

 I had taken to be the buck's death -run was no 

 more than the result of the sting of one of the 

 larvae ; but why the collapse at the end ? I have 

 witnessed the same thing on two occasions, so 



