452 Asiatic Society. [No. 125. 



('Madras Journal/ No. XXV. 22b), as Ant. subquadricornutus, being characterized 

 by larger size, and by having the anterior pair of horns scarcely developed, 

 while the posterior pair is longer than in the preceding species. Both of these 

 animals were known to me in England. The name Chickera, according to Mr. Elliot, 

 is applied by all natives to the Gazella Cora of Colonel Hamilton Smith, which I have 

 the authority of that learned naturalist for identifying with Ant. Bennettii of Sykes, 

 rightly referred by Mr. Elliot to A. Arabica of Hemprich and Ehrenberg; though 

 Colonel Smith's appellation takes precedence. The Museum of this Society contains 

 a stuffed specimen of the kid of G. Cora, and numerous heads of adults ; and I have 

 seen many fine examples of the species, and among them a pair now living in Cal- 

 cutta : nor is this the only species of true Gazelle inhabiting India. Mr. Gray has 

 described, or at least named, a Gazella Christii, founded on a pair of horns obtained, 

 if I remember rightly, in the Thurr, or great sandy desert north of Cutch, and depo- 

 sited in the British Museum ; and there is a stuffed specimen of the same species in the 

 United Service Museum, received from Bombay, which satisfactorily establishes its 

 existence. The G. Christii is a typical Gazella, inferior to G. Dorcas in size, and 

 remarkable for its very pale colouring ; the horns are smaller and much more slender 

 than in G. Cora, less freely thrown out, and take the usual curve backward in this 

 group, having the tips very abruptly bent inward. Proceeding westward, another 

 species, the G. subgutturosa, inhabits Persia and the foot of the Caucasus ; while 

 G. Dorcas is found in Arabia in addition to G. Cora. 



Respecting the present species, or Tetraceros chickera, a writer in the ' Bengal 

 Sporting Magazine' mentions, that " it is found in the forests at the bottom of the 

 Sivalik hills, and is considered a rare species : as the places it inhabits can only be 

 beaten by Elephants, and this animal generally breaks cover at the distance of eighty 

 yards, bounding off in a succession of short leaps, it is not very easily shot. The 

 back pair of horns are about four inches, and the fore one inch and a half in length. 

 This species," it is added, " is called Chouka or Chousinga, while Chickera is applied 

 to either subulata or acuticornis." 



Captain Brown states, in the same periodical, that — " The Shikara, a small antelope 

 yet undescribed, is found in Hurriana ; both sexes have horns, of a slender form with- 

 out rings, and about eight inches in length; the animal is about half the size of the 

 common Antelope [A. Cervicapra.] There is another Antelope also found in Hurriana, 

 with slightly compressed horns, having rings, bending backward, and ten inches in 

 length : both these species being unknown to naturalists." The latter is perhaps 

 Gazella Christii, and the former doubtless identical with " an elegant small-sized 

 Antelope, with horns in the females, numerous about Delhi ;" as noticed by another 

 observer in the same work. 



These diminutive Antelopes of India are greatly in need of elucidation. In the 

 Royal College of Surgeons, London, there exists a frontlet from this country, to 

 which Prof. Blainville has assigned the name of Ant. subulata, and a single horn of 

 another species, which he has designated A. acuticornis. These are described in 

 Colonel Hamilton Smith's valuable treatise on the Ruminantia, published in the 4th 

 volume of Griffith's English edition of Cuvier's * Animal Kingdom,' and I possess 

 original drawings of both specimens, which 1 shall take an opportunity of publishing 

 in the Society's Journal. 



