il 
Height of male at withers about 30 inches. General colour in the same 
sex brown, gradually darkening with age to deep shining black. Muzzle 
and chin, an area round the eyes, and the whole of ears white. Back of neck, 
especially in the black individuals, yellowish. Upper part of flanks with an 
indistinct narrow whitish line running along them, most conspicuous in the 
young. Chest, belly, and inner sides of limbs pure white ; outer sides of the 
latter brown. ‘Tail short, its upperside fawn or brown, beneath white ; its 
end with an indistinct blackish tuft. | 
Female brownish fawn wherever the male is black, and with the colour- 
contrasts nowhere so conspicuous. Back of ears and nape of neck also fawn. 
Horns absent, except in abnormal cases (see p. 14). 
Skull as describedabove. The dimensions of a skull of a male are :—Basal 
length 8°3 inches, greatest breadth 4:0, muzzle to orbit 4:9. 
Hab. India, from the base of the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from 
the Punjab to Lower Assam; but not found in Ceylon or to the east of the 
Bay of Bengal. 
The Indian Antelope or Black-buck, as the male is universally called by 
sportsmen, is usually associated with the Gazelles, and we retain it in this 
position, although it deviates from all the other members of the subfamily 
in having its horns spirally twisted somewhat after the manner of the 
Tragelaphine. It likewise differs from the rest of the group as regards the 
strong contrast of colour between the sexes, although this is of course a 
comparatively trifling character. 
This Antelope, although strictly confined to India south of the 
Himalayas, has been more or less known in Europe for a long period, 
probably since the invasion of India by Alexander the Great. It has been 
even conjectured that the twisted horn of the fabled Unicorn of medieval 
writers may have been originally based upon single horns of the present animal, 
though other authorities are inclined to refer the Unicorn’s horn to the 
Narwhal. This, however, is rather an antiquarian than a zoological question. 
In the two last and most complete editions of the ‘Systema Nature’ 
Linneus based his Capra cervicapra upon the descriptions of several of his 
predecessors (Gesner, Aldrovandus, Ray, and Brisson), which certainly refer 
to the present species, and we may therefore safely adopt cervicapra for it as 
its specific term. The name bezoartica of Linneus, which has been employed 
