SS The Four-horned Antelopes of India. 



ANTELOPID.E VEL CAPRID.E. 



Genus Tetracerus, Leach. 

 Essential Characters, Mihi. 



Horns in the males only, four in number, two interorbital, and 

 two set on behind the orbits but below the frontal crest. Anteal 

 horns hollow cored : Posteal horns solid cored. Large moist muzzle. 

 Lachrymal sinus medial, forming a straight longitudinal slit. Feet 

 pores in hind feet only, or none : Inguinal pores none. Teats 

 4 ? 2 ?* No calcic tufts or glands. Sexes of same size, but females 

 unhorned, and wanting the facial marks of the male, where he has 

 any. 



Manners and habitat. — Not gregarious. Monogamous. Found 

 usually in pairs or solitarily. Exclusively confined to primitive forests 

 and to the parts where thick undergrowth, especially of reeds, 

 abounds. Never frequent plains or mountains, but dwell in the 

 forests at the base of the latter, and are found all over India in such 

 situations, and in no other country apparently. Their droppings are 

 at a fixed spot, and thereby the hunters are guided in finding them, 

 as they are in finding the rhinoceros. The four-horned antelopes fre- 

 quent salt licks, and wear away their incisors by grubbing for the salt 

 which they are very fond of, as indeed are all ruminants. They 

 are shy, and when hunted, either lie very close, creeping often under 

 one's elephant's belly, so that it becomes impossible to get a shot, or 

 they go off far ahead, moving by high bounds, like the common 

 antelope (Cervicapra). In rapid motion they carry the head low and 

 the buttocks high, with the tail reverted over the back. They breed 

 but once a year : the rutting season being autumn, and the period of 

 parturition early spring or late in winter. Most young are born in 

 January and February, some in December, and some in March. The 

 period of gestation is six months, and the female usually produces 

 two at a birth, but sometimes only one. The Indian names are 

 Chouka, from Chouk, a bound or leap, and Chousinga, from the four 

 horns : the word being precisely equivalent to the Greek Tetrakeros ; 

 Latin Tetracerus. 



* Latest specimen examined had 4, so had Mr. Elliott's : but two others 

 had 2, or I made a mistake. 



