TETRACERUS. 519 



be recognized by their droppings, which they are in the habit of 

 repeatedly depositing in the same spot, until consideiable accumula- 

 tions are formed. 



The pace of the nilgai when alarmed is a heavy gallop. It 

 requires a good horse to catch the bull, which has, however, been 

 not uufrequently run down and speared, but he must be pressed 

 at lii'st. The cow, Ivinloch says, cannot be run down by a single 

 rider, and I never heard of one being speared. Few sportsmen 

 care about shooting nilgai, and in some places they become very 

 tame, as they are generally protected by Hindus, who regard them 

 as a kind of cow. 



jS^ilgai are easily tamed, but the males are sometimes savage in 

 confinement. Tame individuals have been taught to draw lifrht 

 carriages, and Stern dale relates that he trained one to carry a load 

 and to be ridden. They have bred in confinement in Europe, and 

 the period of gestation was found in the Regent's Park Zoological 

 Gardens to be between 8 and 9 months (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 230). 

 One or very often two young arc produced. The flesh of the 

 nilgai is fairly good, though inferior to that of most Indian wild 

 Bovidce. 



Genus TETRACERUS, Leach (1825). 



Size small. A muffle present. An elongate suborbital gland ; 

 interdigital glands confined to the hind feet. IVo inguinal glands. 

 Hoofs small, rounded in front. Tail short. Mammae 4. 



Frontal and j)arietal profile of skull slightly and gently rounded, 

 the occipital meeting the parietal at a right angle. Lachrymal 

 fossa large. Horns in the male only, usually 4 in number in adults ; 

 all the horns short, conical, smooth, the posterior pair much longer 

 than the anterior, which are situated between the orbits, are often 

 mere knobs and are not unfreqnently wanting. Jerdon's statement 

 that there are canines in the males is a mistake. 



There is a single species peculiar to India. This is the only 

 Indian representative of the Cephalophine antelopes of Africa or 

 Duikerboks. Eemanis of T. quadricorais ai"e found fossil in the 

 Pleistocene cave-deposits of Kurnool, and a small Siwalik ruminant 

 is referred to this genus. 



356. Tetracerus quadricornis. The four-homed Antelo2:>e. 



Antilope (Cervicapra) quadricornis, BlamviUe, Bui/. Sac. Pldlom. 



1816, p. 78. 

 Antilope chickava, Hardicicke, Tr. L. S. xiv, p. 530, pis. xv, xvi (1825) ; 



Hodiison, J. A. 8. B. i, p. .346. 

 Antilope sub-4-cornutus, Elliot, Mad. Jour. L. S. x, p. 225, pi. iv, 



tig. 2 (1839). 

 Tetiaceros chickera, Bh/th, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 451. 

 Tetracerus quadricoruis, Gray, List Mam. B. 31. p. 159; Blyth, 



J. A. S. B, xvi, p. 879, xvii, p. 561 ; id. Cat. p. 165 ; Horsfield, 



Cat. p. 167 ; Adams, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 522 ; Jerdoji, Mam p. 274 ; 



Blanford, J. A. S. B. xxxvi, p. 196 ; W. Sclater, Cat. p. 168. 



