234 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



Holland. Mr. Pennant remarked in this species what we 

 have witnessed in some kinds of Deer, that they apply in 

 smelling, not only the nostrils, but also the suborbital open- 

 ing, especially to a grateful scent. 



This species resides in India in herds of fifty or sixty 

 does or females, led by a dark-coloured buck. They remain 

 invariably on the open plains, so as to see danger from a 

 distance. Captain Williamson and other sportsmen state, 

 that when a herd is collected to lie down and ruminate on 

 some favourite spot, the young males and some females are 

 detached two or three hundred yards each way to keep 

 watch, especially if there be clumps of grass or bushes, be- 

 hind which a man might lurk unseen, except for such a 

 precaution. "It is folly," continues this well-informed 

 sportsman, " to slip greyhounds after them, for, excepting 

 by surprise, success is not to be expected, but, perhaps, at 

 the expense of their lives." The height and distance of 

 their bounds are wonderful, and said to be at least twelve 

 feet from the ground, and over twenty-five or thirty feet of 

 space, and as it were for their own amusement* appearing 

 to deride such dogs as follow them. The chase, therefore, 

 as an amusement (for the venison is dry and lean) is con- 

 ducted by the Mahomedan and Hindoo princes, with hawks 

 who fly at and fix their talons on the head and throat of 

 the quarry, till the dogs can come up ; or with the Cheetah, 

 by surprise, as is also practiced in Persia *. They are found 

 over the whole peninsula of India, to the northward and 

 westward as far as the Indus ; but as they do not resort 

 to the sandy deserts, it is probable that they extend along 

 the more fertile uplands of the Persian Gulph, particularly 



* They are caught also, by means of slip knots attached 

 to the horns of a decoy male, who, going up to the herd, is 

 soon encountered in sport by the young males coming to play 

 with him, and are entangled by the horns, and readily cap- 

 tured. 



