HUNTING ON THE TURIN PLAIN 127 



skimming like tiny, brown chickens beside their moth- 

 ers. There is another wonderful provision for their 

 life upon the desert. The digestive fluids of the stom- 

 ach act upon the starch in the vegetation which they 

 eat so that it forms sufficient water for their needs. 

 Therefore, some species never drink. 



The antelope choose a flat plain on which to give birth 

 to their young in order to be well away from the wolves 

 which are their greatest enemy; and the fawns are 

 taught to lie absolutely motionless upon the ground 

 until they know that they have been discovered. Ap- 

 parently they are all born during the last days of June 

 and in the first week of July. The great herds which 

 we encountered were probably moving northward both 

 to obtain better grazing and to drop their young on 

 the Turin plain. During this period the old bucks go 

 off singly into the rolling ground, and the herds are 

 composed only of does and yearling males. It was al- 

 ways possible to tell at once if an antelope had a fawn 

 upon the plain, for she would run in a wide circle around 

 the spot and refuse to be 4riven away. 



We encountered only two species of antelope between 

 Kalgan and Urga. The one of which I have been writ- 

 ing, and with which we became best acquainted, was the 

 Mongolian gazelle {Gazella gidtv/rosa) . The other 

 was the goitered gazelle {Gazella suhgutturosa) . In 

 the western Gobi, the Prjevalski gazelle {Gazella 

 prjevalski) is more abundant than the other species, 

 but it never reaches the region which we visited. 



The goitered antelope is seldom found on the rolling 



