396 
THE STORY OF THE GAZELLE. 
Its swiftness is such that it can but seldom be taken with dogs; but it does 
not leap in the air like the dorcas. This gazelle keeps much to waste ground, 
especially where that is broken up by ravines, but it is seldom seen on alluvial 
plains, and it haunts cultivation less than the [Indian] antelope. I have fre¬ 
quently found it among scattered bushes or thin tree-jungle, and it may be met 
with on undulating ground even on the top of hills; it is commonly found 
amongst sand-hills, and is nowhere so abundant as in parts of the Indian 
desert. It lives on grass and the leaves of bushes, and, I believe, never drinks, 
for it is common in tracts where there is no- water except from deep wells. 
A peculiar gazelle, known as the gerenuk, or Waller’s gazelle, inhabits 
Eastern Africa, and is remarkable for the great length of its neck, which has 
been likened to a miniature giraffe. 
The gerenuk is found all over the Somali country in small families, never 
in large herds, and generally in scattered bush, ravines and rocky ground. I 
have never seen it in the cedar-forests, nor in the treeless plains. Gerenuk 
are not necessarily found near water; in fact, generally in stony ground with 
a sprinkling of thorn-jungle. Its gait is peculiar. When first seen, a buck 
gerenuk will generally be standing motionless, head well up, looking at the 
intruder, and trusting to its invisibility. Then the head dives under the bushes, 
and the animal goes off at a long, crouching trot, stopping now and again 
behind some bush to gaze. The trot is awkward-looking*, and very like that 
of a camel; the gerenuk seldom gallops, and its. pace is never very fast. In 
the whole shape of the head and neck, and in the slender lower jaw, there is 
a marked resemblance between the gerenuk and the dibatag. It subsists more 
by browsing than by grazing, and it may not unfrequently be observed stand¬ 
ing up on its hind-legs, with outstretched neck, and its fore-feet resting 
against the trunk of a tree, in order to> pluck the foliage. 
The goitred gazelle is rather a heavy animal, found in Eastern Siberia, 
Chinese Mongolia and Western Thibet. It also inhabits Persia, and a fa¬ 
vorite sport of Persian noblemen is to- hunt it with the chita, or trained hunting 
leopard. 
A beautiful species of gazelle is the Dorcas, found in Egypt and Barbary, 
where it lives in large troops upon the borders of the cultivated country, and 
also- in the deserts. When pursued it flies to- some distance, then sto-ps to gaze 
a moment at the hunters, and again renews its flight. The flock, when 
attacked collectively, disperse in all directions, but soon unite, and when 
brought to- bay defend themselves with courage and obstinacy, uniting in a 
cio-se circle, with the females and fawns in the center, and presenting their 
