THE GAZELLE 



(Gaze I la dorcas) 



ALTHOUGH many kinds of gazelles are now known, the gazelle par excellence, 

 that is to say, the ghazal of the Arabs, is the beautiful little species 

 represented in the Plate, which, in order to distinguish it from its relatives, 

 naturalists have designated the dorcas. And no more beautiful and delicately 

 made creature exists in the world than this same gazelle, which has formed the 

 theme of poets — especially in the East — for centuries, as the emblem of beauty, 

 elegance, and fleetness. Many people persist in confusing gazelles with deer, 

 although the two groups have but little in common, being broadly distinguished 

 by the characters of their horns, which in gazelles are hollow, unbranched sheaths 

 of true horn supported on cores of bone, while in deer they are branching 

 structures of bare bone. Indeed, the so-called horns of deer are not really horns 

 at all, at all events from the point of view of the naturalist, but rather antlers ; and 

 gazelles constitute a section of that group of ruminants collectively known as 

 antelopes. 



Of the approximate size of a roebuck, the true, or dorcas, gazelle, like most of its 

 kindred is coloured to harmonise with the more or less desert conditions of its home. 

 The delicate rufous fawn of the upper-parts accords with the yellow tint of the rocks 

 or sand amid which these beautiful creatures spend most of their time ; while, when 

 the animal is standing in the full glare of an Eastern sun, the white of the under 

 surface counteracts the effect of the dark shade thrown by the body, and thus, even 

 at comparatively short distances, makes for more or less complete invisibility. 

 Neither is the white "blaze" on the rump without its special use, as it serves as 

 a guide to the members of a troop to follow the line taken by their leader when 

 safety depends solely upon fleetness of foot ; the effect of the danger-signal on such 

 occasions being increased by the elevation of the tail, of which the white under 

 surface is then shown. In the bucks alone do the gracefully curved and heavily 

 ringed black horns attain their full development ; those of the does being thin and 

 nearly smooth spikes. 



The range of the gazelle is large, including the whole of northern Africa, 

 from Morocco in the west to Egypt in the east, and extending southwards to 

 Nigeria and the Egyptian Sudan ; while in Asia it embraces Palestine and Syria. 

 In western and southern Arabia it is, however, replaced by the Arabian gazelle 

 {Gazella arabica), which is itself a relative of the edmi gazelle (G. cuvieri), of 

 Morocco, Algeria, and western Tunisia ; the last-named being a mountain- 

 dweller, whereas the dorcas is largely a native of the plains. 



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