THE GAZELLE. 169 
the Antelopes are light aud elegant of body, their limbs are gracefully 
slender, and are furnished with small cloven hoofs. The tail is never of any 
great length, and in many species is very short. The horns, set above the 
eyebrows, are either simply conical or are bent so as to resemble the two 
horns of the ancient lyre, and are therefore termed “lyrate” in technical 
language. 
The well-known GAZELLE is found in great numbers in Northern Africa, 
where it lives in herds of considerable size, and is largely hunted by man 
and beast. 
Trusting to its swift limbs for its safety, the Gazelle will seldom, if ever, 
attempt to resist a foe, unless it be actually driven to bay in some spot from 
GAZELLE.—(Cazella Dorcas.) 
whence it cannot escape ; but prefers to flee across the sandy plains, in which 
it loves to dwell, with the marvellous speed for which it has long been 
proverbial. The herd seems to be actuated by a strong spirit of mutual 
attachment, which preserves its members from being isolated from their 
companions, and which, in many instances, is their only safeguard against 
the attacks of the smaller predaceous animals. The lion and the leopard can 
always find a meal whenever they can steal upon a band of Gazelles without 
being discovered by the sentries which watch the neighbourhood with jealous 
precaution ; for the Gazelles are too weak to withstand the attack of such 
terrible assailants, and do not even attempt resistance. 
The eye of the Gazelle is large, soft, and lustrous, and has been long 
celebrated by the poets of its own land as the most flattering simile of a 
woman’s eye. The colour of this pretty little animal is a light fawn upon the 
back, deepening into dark brown in a wide band which edges the flanks, and 
forms a line of demarcation between the yellow-brown of the upper portions 
