CHAPTER XXI. 



THE INDIAN ANTELOPE. 



Antilope Cervicapra. 

 Generally throughout India. — Heran. 



THE Indian Antelope, the male of which is universally known as the ' Black Buck,' is 

 generally distributed throughout India, being found from the foot of the Himalayas to the 

 extreme south of the mainland, and from Eastern Bengal to the river Jhelum. 



There are, however, large tracts of country where it is not found, and it is essentially an 

 inhabitant of the open cultivated plains, avoiding equally hills and dense jungles. 



The localities in which I know it to be most abundant are the desert near Ferozpiir, in 

 the Hissar District, and in the neighbourhood of Alighar. 



The male is one of the most graceful and beautiful animals in creation, combining 

 symmetry of form and brilliancy of coloring, with marvellous speed and elasticity of movement. 

 He stands about thirty-two inches at the shoulder, and when arrived at maturity, the upper parts 

 are of a deep glossy black, with the exception of a light chesnut-colored patch at the back of 

 the neck, and some markings of the same color about the face. The lower parts and inside of 

 the limbs are snowy white, and the line between the black and white is most clearly defined. 

 The hair is short and glossy, and the skin makes a very pretty mat. 



The horns are remarkably handsome, being spiral and annulated nearly to their tips. 

 They vary considerably in length, degree of spirality, in the number and prominence of rings, 

 and in the angle at which they diverge. In Southern India they are said rarely to attain a 

 greater length than twenty inches, but in the Punjab they have been found very much longer. 

 I have seen two pairs of twenty-seven inches, and have lieard of horns over twenty-eight. I 

 was never fortunate enough to bag a buck with very remarkable horns, though I was once 

 within an ace of getting a twenty-six-inch pair, as hereafter related. Young bucks are of a 

 li^ht fawn color, their coats gradually becoming darker with age, although I have seen full- 

 grown buck with long horns, which had hardly a black hair. 



The doe is of a light fawn above, and white beneath, with a light colored line along 

 the side : she is not furnished with horns, except in very rare instances. When horns do 

 appear they are slender and much curved, bearing no resemblance to those of the buck. 



Antelope delight in extensive open plains, where there are alternate wide tracts of culti- 

 vation and waste land, repairing as a rule to the fields for food, and resting when they can on 

 bare and sandy soil. 



