THE INDIAN BLACKBUCK 
_ Egyptian Arabs frequently catch them in a form of trap which is widely 
employed against all the small antelopes and some other game, and which is 
made wholly, except the short rope, from the date palm. It consists of 
a ring, of plaited leaf fibers, about three inches in diameter, through which 
are pushed date thorns, which converge toward the centers where they 
slightly overlap. A hole is then dug in a likely place, and the ring set over 
it, capped by the noose at one end of the rope, which at the other end is 
tied to a heavy buried stick. The whole is then sprinkled with sand and 
left. Should a gazelle put its foot through the ring, it will be held by the 
in-pointing thorns, its struggles will tighten the noose around its leg, and 
the attached stick will so impede flight that next morning it can easily be 
tracked and overtaken. This trap in some shape is used for the capture 
of all sorts of animals throughout all northern Africa. 
Nearly allied to this gazelle are several others in Africa and 
Asia whose habits are similar, yet in regard to each of which 
many peculiar and entertaining facts are on record. 
A familiar Indian one is the blackbuck or ‘‘ravine 
deer,” in which the bucks are blackish brown down to the 
middle of the sides and chest, and down the outside of the 
legs, sharply contrasted with pure white below and inside 
the slender limbs. Its dandified manner of walking and hold- 
ing its head haughtily high, the long horns lying gracefully 
along the satiny back, give it a most fetching air of self-satis- 
fied pride. Does and young bucks are fawn-colored and 
white. 
Blackbuck. 
This beautiful and agile gazelle is one of the game animals of all the 
open plains of India, and requires quick shooting to bring it to bag. Cum- 
ming records a queer incident in this connection. “One of our party,” 
he says, “fired at a buck antelope and struck it on the side of the horn 
about three inches above the head. The effect of the shot was to wrench 
off the horn from the spiral bone which it covered. In fact, it was simply 
unscrewed, and by the force of the shot was sent spinning several feet into 
the air.’ This blackbuck is the special object of sport with the cheeta. 
The desolate plateaus of Tibet and Mongolia sustain flocks 
of several species of antelope, one of which, the chiru (Ti- 
betan; Mongolian, orongo), is notable not only for its long, 
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