296 



UNGULATES. 



Habits. 



this animal is the excessively long neck (as shown in the accompanying figure), 

 which has led to its being likened to a miniature giraffe. The horns of the bucks 

 curve forwards at the tips in a peculiar hook-like manner, and are usually about 



13 inches in length, although they may reach 14 

 inches. The skin of this antelope is distinguished 

 by the presence of a very broad dark-brown band 

 running down the middle of the back, which in its 

 widest part measures some 7 or 8 inches across, and 

 stands out in striking contrast to the rufous fawn of 

 the flanks and limbs. 



The skull differs from those of the true gazelles 

 by its extremely dense and solid structure, as well 

 by the relative shortness of its facial portion, its 

 remarkable straightness, and the unusually small 

 size of the cheek-teeth. 



Captain Swayne says that "the 

 gerenuk is found all over the Somali 

 country in small families, never in large herds, and 

 generally in scattered bush, ravines, and rocky 

 ground. I have never seen it in the cedar-forests, 

 nor in the treeless plains. Gerenuk are not neces- 

 sarily found near water ; in fact, generally in stony 

 ground with a sprinkling of thorn -jungle. The gait 

 of this antelope is peculiar. When first seen, a buck 

 gerenuk will generally be standing motionless, head 

 well up, looking at the intruder, and trusting to its 

 invisibility. Then the head dives under the bushes, 

 and the animal goes off at a long, crouching trot, 

 stopping now and again behind some bush to gaze. 

 The trot is awkward-looking, and very like that of 

 a camel ; the gerenuk seldom gallops, and its pace is 

 never very fast. In the whole shape of the head 

 and neck, and in the slender lower jaw, there is a marked resemblance between the 

 gerenuk and the dibatag." This antelope subsists more by browsing than by 

 grazing, and it may not unfrequently be observed standing up on its hind-legs, 

 with outstretched neck, and its fore-feet resting against the trunk of a tree, in 

 order to pluck the foliage. 



HEAD AND NECK OF THE GERENUK. 



(From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1892.) 



The Chiru, or Tibetan Antelope. 



Genus Pantholops. 



In addition to possessing a peculiar species of gazelle, to which reference has 

 already been made, the elevated and barren plateau of Tibet is further characterised 

 by an antelopo remarkable for the swollen nose and long elegant horns of the bucks. 

 This antelope is the chiru {Pantholops hodgsoni), the sole representative of the 



