THE
BOOK OF ANTELOPES.

BY

PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.,

SECRETARY TO THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,

AND

OLDFIELD THOMAS, F.Z.S., F.R.G.S.,

ASSISTANT IN THE ZOOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

IN FOUR VOLUMES (1894–1900).

VOL. III.

LONDON:
R. H. PORTER, 7 PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W.
1897–1898.

ALERE FLAMMAM.

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
IN THE TEXT.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES.

VOL. III.

Subfamily V. ANTILOPINÆ.

General Characters.—Size medium or small. Muzzle hairy. Anteorbital glands variable, large in some genera, absent in others. Tail generally short. Mammæ 2 (4 in Saiga).

Skull usually with supraorbital pits, lachrymal vacuities, and anteorbital fossæ. Molars tall and narrow.

Horns present in the male only, except in Antidorcas and in most of the species of Gazella.

Range of Subfamily. South-eastern Europe, Western and Central Asia, Peninsula of India, and the whole of Africa.

The greater part of this subfamily consists of the Gazelles and their allies, the Saiga, Chiru, Springbuck, Gerenuk, and Dibatag; and with these, by common consent, are included the Black-buck, the typical form of the whole group of Antelopes, and the Pallahs. We have also thought that the anomalous little Antelope known as the Beira would best be placed in this subfamily, near the Gazelles, in spite of the superficial resemblance it bears to certain members of the subfamily Neotraginæ.

The present subfamily consists therefore of nine genera, which may be arranged as follows:—

• A. Horns spirally twisted  1. Antilope.
• B. Horns curved or straight, not twisted.
• a. False hoofs absent  2. Æpyceros.
• b. False hoofs present.
• a¹. Horns medium or long, curved.
• a². Muzzle swollen or elongated.
• a³. Horns medium, lyrate, whitish  3. Saiga.
• b³. Horns long, slightly curved, black  4. Pantholops.
• b². Muzzle slender, normal.
• a³. Neck normal.
• a⁴. Horns convex forwards for three-fourths their length.
• a⁵. Back with a central white streak. Lower premolars 2.  5. Antidorcas.
• b⁵. Back normal. Lower premolars 3  6. Gazella.
• b⁴. Horns concave forwards, except just at their base.  7. Ammodorcas.
• b³. Neck much elongated. Horns as in Gazella.  8. Lithocranius.
• b¹. Horns short, quite straight  9. Dorcotragus.

Genus I. ANTILOPE.

Size medium. Muzzle hairy. A large anteorbital gland present. Tail short, compressed. Mammæ 2. Accessory hoofs present. Glands in all the feet and in the groin.

Skull with deep pits between the orbits, very small or no lachrymal vacuities, and large anteorbital fossæ. Molars tall and narrow.

Horns long, placed close together, widely divergent, cylindrical, spirally twisted, closely ringed throughout. Female normally hornless.

Range of the Genus. Peninsula of India.

One species only is known.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XLVII.

J. Smit, del. & lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Black-buck

ANTILOPE CERVICAPRA.

Published by R. H. Porter.

76. THE BLACK-BUCK.
ANTILOPE CERVICAPRA (Linn.).
[PLATE XLVII.]

Gazella africana—The Antelope, Ray, Quadr. p. 79 (1693).

Capra cervicapra, Linn. Syst. Nat. (10) i. p. 69 (1758), (12) i. p. 96 (1766).

Antilope cervicapra, Pall. Misc. Zool. p. 9 (1766); id. Spic. Zool. i. p. 18 (1767), xii. p. 19 (1777); Erxl. Syst. R. A. p. 283 (1777); Zimm. Spec. Zool. Geog. p. 542 (1779); id. Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 116 (1780); Gatt. Brev. Zool. i. p. 81 (1780); Schreb. Säug. pl. cclxviii. (1785); Bodd. Elench. Anim. p. 142 (1785); Gmel. Linn. S. N. i. p. 192 (1788); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 319 (1792); Donnd. Zool. Beitr. i. p. 644 (1792); Lath. & Dav. Faunula Indica, p. 4 (1795); Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 90 (1795); G. Cuv. Tabl. Élém. p. 164 (1798); Bechst. Syst. Uebers. vierf. Th. ii. p. 644 (1800); Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 336 (1801); Turt. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 116 (1802); Desm. N. Diet. d’H. N. (1) xxiv. Tabl. p. 33 (1804); G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 235 (1804); Tied. Zool. i. p. 410 (1808); Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 172 (1814); G. Fisch. Zoogn. iii. p. 437 (1814); Afz. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 180 (1816); G. Cuv. R. A. i. p. 261 (1817); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1214 (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 389 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 451 (1822); Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 443 (1822); H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 231, v. p. 337 (1827); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 370 (1827); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 457 (1829); Gray & Hardw. Ill. Ind. Zool. i. pls. xii. & xiii. (1832); Benn. P. Z. S. 1836, p. 34; Og. P.Z. S. 1836, p. 137; Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 289 (1836); Oken, Allg. Nat. vii. p. 1377 (1838); Elliot, Madr. Journ. x. p. 222 (1839); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 620 (1839); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. i. p. 260 (1840); Hodgs. J. A. S. B. x. p. 913 (1841); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 175 (1842); Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 379 (1844); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 416 (1844), v. p. 409 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 408 (1845); Hutton, J. A. S. B. xv. p. 150 (1846); Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 270 (1847); id. Hornsch. Transl. Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 266; Reprint, p. 86 (1848); Schinz, Mon. Ant. p. 10, pl. ix. (1848); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 190 (1853); Gieb. Säug. p. 312 (1853); Kinloch, Large Game Shooting in Tibet, p. 59 (1869) (pl., head); Blanf. J. A. S. B. xliv. pt. 2, p. 19 (1875); Ball, P. A. S. B. 1877, p. 171; Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 198 (1880); Scl. List Anim. Z. S. (8) p. 144 (1883), (9) p. 158 (1896); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 266 (1884); Kinloch, Large Game Shooting, 1885, p. 112, 1892, p. 153, pl. (head); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (M. P.-B. ix.) p. 137 (1889); W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 162 (1891); Blanf. Mamm. Brit. Ind. p. 521 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 340 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 95 (1892), (2) p. 139 (1896); Jent. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (M. P.-B. xi.) p. 169 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 152 (1893).

Cerophorus (Antilope) cervicapra, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Strepsiceros cervicapra, Rüpp. Verz. Senck. Mus. p. 39 (1842).

Antilope rupicapra, Müll. Natursyst. Supp. p. 56 (1776) (ex l’Antilope, Buff. Hist. Nat. xii. p. 273, pls. xxxv. & xxxvi. 1764).

Cemas strepsiceros, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. p. 732 (1816).

Antilope, F. Cuv. H. N. Mamm. (fol.) iii. livr. xliii. (♂) & xliv. (♀) (1824).

“Antilope bilineata, Linn. MS.,” Gray & Hardw. Ill. Ind. Zool., lettering to pl. xii. (1832) (juv.).

Cervicapra bezoartica, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 159 (1843); id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846); id. Cat. Mamm. Nepal, Hodgson Coll. (1) p. 26 (1846), (2) p. 13 (1863); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 56 (1847); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 6 (1850); Horsf. Cat. Mamm. E. I. C. p. 167 (1851); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 234 (1862); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. 1, p. 162 (1869).

Antilope bezoartica, Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 117; id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 66 (1852); Blyth, Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. p. 171 (1863); Jerdon, Mamm. Ind. p. 275 (1867); Blanf. J. A. S. B. xxxvi. pt. 2, p. 196 (1867); Macmaster, Notes on Jerdon, pp. 134 & 258 (1870); Stol. J. A. S. B. xli. pt. 2, p. 229 (1872); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 40 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 109 (1873); Pollok, Sport in Brit. Burmah, p. 50 (1879); Sterndale, Mamm. Ind. p. 472 (1884); Percy, Badminton Big Game Shooting, ii. p. 345 (1894).

Vernacular Names:—Ena ♂, Harina and Mirga, in Sanscrit; Haran, Harna ♂, Harni ♀, Kalwit ♀, Mrig, in Hindostani; Kala ♂, Goria ♀, in Tirhoot; Kalsar ♂, Baoti ♀, in Behar; Bureta in Bhagalpur; Barant or Sasin in Nepal; Alali ♂, Gandoli ♀, in Baori; Badu in Ho Kol; Bamani-haran in Uria and Mahratta; Phandayat in Mahratta; Kutsar in Korku; Veli-man in Tamil; Irri ♂, Ledi and Jinka in Telugu; Chigri and Húlé-kara in Canarese (Blanford).

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 described above. 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 Tragelaphinæ. 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 mediæval 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 Naturæ’ Linnæus 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 Linnæus, which has been employed in its place by some authorities, refers to quite a different animal, probably to one of the wild goats, but certainly not to the Indian Antelope.

As regards the generic appellation of the present animal, we have already explained our reasons for following the general practice of the best modern authors in considering the Capra cervicapra of Linnæus to be the type of the genus Antilope, although Pallas, who founded the genus, did not give it precedence in his list of species. But the fact is that Pallas in his day never realized the importance attached in modern times to the exact designation of the types of genera, and had probably no intentions in the matter. The correct scientific name of the Black-buck is therefore, in our opinion, Antilope cervicapra.

The authors immediately subsequent to Linnæus, whose numerous references we quote in our synonymy, added little or nothing to our knowledge of the Indian Antelope. Shaw and other writers of the same date continued the story (which originally arose from its being confounded with the Addax) of its being met with in Africa as well as India—a fallacy which appears to have been first exposed by Lichtenstein in his excellent article on the genus Antilope, published in 1814. But accurate information on this Antelope and its exact range and habits was only obtained when the fauna of the Indian Peninsula came to be investigated by those whom the increase of English influence caused to be resident in that country.

After General Hardwicke, the late Sir Walter Elliot was among the first of the British residents in India who turned his special attention to the zoology of British India. In 1839 he published an excellent article upon the mammals of the Southern Mahratta country. Here, he tells us, the Indian Antelope “frequents the plains in herds of from twenty to thirty, each of which contains only one buck of mature age, the others being young ones.” In some cases the herds are so large that one buck has fifty or sixty does in its company, while the younger bucks, driven away by the old ones, wander about in separate herds, which sometimes contain as many as thirty individuals of different ages.

Jerdon, in his ‘Mammals of India,’ published in 1867, following Gray, calls the Indian Antelope Antilope bezoartica, but gives us a good account of it. It is found, he says, throughout India in suitable localities, but is not met with elsewhere. “It is rare in Bengal, a few only extending into Purneah and Dinagepore, north of the Ganges; and it does not occur in the richly wooded Malabar coast. It is abundant in the Deccan, in parts of the Doab between the Jumna and Ganges, also in Hurriana, Rajpootana, and the neighbouring districts. It is found in the Punjab, but does not cross the Indus.”

McMaster, in his ‘Notes on Jerdon’s Mammals,’ and Sterndale, in his ‘Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon,’ besides numerous other writers in the ‘Bengal Sporting Magazine’ and other periodicals, have published good field-notes upon the Black-buck, which is perhaps the most favourite object of pursuit of the sportsman in the plains of India. But one of the best summaries of all these observations is that put together by General Kinloch in his excellent work on ‘Large Game Shooting in Thibet, the Himalayas, Northern and Central India,’ from the third edition of which, published in 1892, we venture to quote the following extracts:—

“The Indian Antelope, the male of which is universally known among sportsmen as the ‘Black Buck,’ is generally distributed throughout India, being found from the foot of the Himalayas to the extreme south of the mainland, and from Eastern Bengal to the River Jhílam. There are, however, large tracts of country where it is not found, and it is essentially an inhabitant of the open cultivated plains, avoiding equally hills and dense jungles. The localities in which I know it to be most abundant are the desert near Ferózpúr, in the Hissár District, and in the neighbourhood of Álígarh. The male is one of the most graceful and beautiful animals in creation, combining symmetry of form and brilliancy of coloring with marvellous speed and elasticity of movement. He stands about thirty-two inches at the shoulder, and when arrived at maturity the upper parts are of a deep glossy black, with the exception of a light chestnut-colored patch at the back of the neck, and some markings of the same color about the face. The lower parts and the inside of the limbs are snowy white, and the line between the black and white is most clearly defined. The hair is short and glossy, and the skin makes a very pretty mat. The horns are remarkably handsome, being spiral and annulated nearly to their tips. They vary considerably in length, in degree of spirality, in the number and prominence of rings, and in the angle at which they diverge. In Southern India they are said rarely to attain a greater length than twenty inches, but in the Panjáb they have been found very much longer. I have seen two pairs of twenty-seven inches, and have heard of horns over twenty-eight in length. Young bucks are of a light fawn color, their coats gradually becoming darker with age, although I have seen full-grown buck with long horns which had hardly a black hair. The doe is of a light fawn above and white beneath, with a light-colored line along the side; she is not furnished with horns, except in very rare instances. When horns do appear they are slender and much curved, bearing no resemblance to those of the buck. Antelopes delight in extensive open plains where there are alternate wide tracts of cultivation and waste land, repairing as a rule to the fields for food, and resting when they can on bare and sandy soil. During the rainy season, however, they are fond of concealing themselves among high-standing crops, and only come out in the mornings and evenings. Black Buck are very pugnacious, and sometimes fight so desperately that they will allow a person to walk close up to them without observing him. Many have their horns broken in their combats, and I have seen one both of whose horns were broken off within three inches of the head. Antelopes are usually found in considerable herds, varying in numbers from ten or a dozen to a couple of hundred. A buck and one doe, or a buck and a couple of does, may, however, be frequently met with; and vast herds of many thousands have occasionally been seen. When in large numbers they of course do much damage to the crops, and it is with difficulty that the natives drive them away. It is a beautiful sight when a herd of Antelopes are first alarmed; as soon as they have made up their minds that safety is only to be found in flight, first one, then another bounds into the air to a surprising height, just touching the earth, and again springing upwards, until the whole herd are in motion. So light are their movements that they seem as if they were suspended on wires. These bounds are only continued for a few strides, after which the Antelopes generally settle down into a regular gallop. The speed of the Black Buck is wonderful, and it is seldom that greyhounds can pull down an unwounded one; but I knew one dog that caught several, both bucks and does, on fair ground. Antelopes will go away when very hard hit, and a wounded one will often give a capital run, if ridden after with spear or knife; the latter is nearly as good as the former, for the buck runs so game, that he will not, as a rule, give a chance of spearing him until he is so completely exhausted that he drops with fatigue, when one may dismount and cut his throat. The sportsman can choose between riding down or coursing his wounded Antelope; but either a good horse or a brace of greyhounds should always be in readiness, or the best shot will have the mortification of seeing maimed animals escape to die a lingering death.”

The chase of the Black-buck by the Cheetah (Cynælurus jubatus) is a favourite sport of the native Princes and Nobles of India. General Kinloch, in the work we have just quoted, describes one of these chases, in which he took part, as follows:—

“Early one morning at the beginning of June, M. (a brother Officer) and I rode out with the Chítá cart, and had not proceeded very far across the fields, which were then almost destitute of vegetation, when some Black Buck were discovered in the distance. M. then took his seat beside the keeper of the cart, while I rode alongside, taking care to keep the cart between me and the Antelope. The herd had evidently been hunted before, and in spite of careful manœuvring would never allow us to approach within a hundred and fifty yards, which the keeper considered too great a distance for a successful slip. Several other antelope were followed with a similar result, but at last a herd that were grazing in a very rough field permitted the bullocks to trot up to within a hundred yards. The Chítá was now unhooded, and on catching sight of the game he sprang lightly from the cart, but instead of at once giving chase, he walked quietly towards the Antelope, which, being now alarmed, were rapidly increasing their distance. I began to think that he had no intention of pursuing, and the Antelope were nearly two hundred yards off, when he gradually increased his speed, and after a few strides bounded after them with such amazing velocity that in a few seconds he was in the middle of the now flying herd. Passing several small ones, he singled out one of the finest buck, and in less time than it takes to describe it buck and Chítá rolled over in a cloud of dust. The chase had not extended much over three hundred yards. Galloping to the spot, I found the buck lying on his back, while the Chítá crouched quietly by him with his fangs buried in the throat. The keeper quickly came up, terminated the buck’s existence with his knife, and catching the blood in a wooden ladle, presented it to the Chítá, who lapped it up with relish. A haunch was then cut off, and the Chítá seizing it bounded back into his cart, where he proceeded to devour it at his leisure. The buck was a fine one, with twenty-three inch horns.”

Excellent accounts of the distribution and habits of the Indian Antelope have also been lately published in Dr. Stanford’s ‘Mammals of British India,’ and in the second volume of ‘Big Game Shooting’ in the Badminton Library. In the latter we find described the following curious method of getting within close range of the Black-buck as practised in Central India:—

“A trained Black-buck and doe are taken out, each having a light cord about ten yards long attached to it, and the pair are led by an attendant, a light screen about three feet square made of grass and leaves with a small hole in the centre being carried by the shikari. The whole party moves under cover of a third man on horseback to within about three hundred yards of a herd of antelopes. The screen is then planted on a spot commanding a good view; the men on foot crouch behind it, and the horseman rides slowly off on the flank. The two tame Antelopes are then let out to the full extent of their lines on one side of the screen, and begin playing round one another. The master buck of the herd, seeing an impertinent intruder on his ground, trots out at once to do battle for the doe, but the screen puzzles him, so before coming close he generally circles round to try and see behind it. As he moves, the screen is shifted round, the men scrambling round on hands and knees behind it, and if there are two Englishmen bursting with suppressed laughter in addition to the two natives, all scuffling round as the screen moves and trying to keep their legs out of sight, the business is most comical. Directly the wild buck stops, the screen and the men behind it must remain motionless. Having failed to discover what is behind the screen, the buck, though he is still suspicious, feels that he must try to capture that enticing doe, but decides on having a look on the other side of the screen first, so back he gallops to the other flank, and the scrambling process is repeated. Gradually he comes within range, the rifle is poked through the hole in the screen and he gets his quietus. After this the tame Antelopes are given a handful of corn, and the party sets out to look for another herd. The tame buck employed in this manœuvre should be a brown one, as if an old powerful-looking black one is used the wild buck will often decline the contest.”

The Indian Antelope bears captivity easily, and specimens of it are to be seen in all the Zoological Gardens of Europe, in some of which it has bred and multiplied very successfully. In other places it has not done so well, apparently requiring a light soil and a considerable amount of protection from the inclemencies of a northern climate.

In the celebrated Menagerie at Knowsley fifty years ago this Antelope is stated by Gray to have bred but once at the time he was writing of it (1846). But shortly afterwards the herd of this animal in Lord Derby’s possession appears to have increased very rapidly. When the Menagerie was dispersed by auction after the Earl’s death in 1851 we find that four males and four females of this Antelope were entered in the sale-list, all described as having been bred at Knowsley. These passed into the possession of the late Viscount Hill, of Hawkstone, who at that epoch shared Lord Derby’s tastes in his love for keeping living animals.

So far as we can tell from an inspection of the Zoological Society’s records, the first specimens of the Black-buck received by the Society were brought home by Col. Sykes (a well-known authority on Indian zoology) from Bombay in 1831. In the ‘Proceedings’ of the Society for 1836 Mr. E. T. Bennett, then Secretary of the Society, published some interesting remarks on this herd, especially referring to the vexed question of the use of the lachrymal sinus in Antelopes, which, from consideration of the relative development of it in the several specimens then in the Society’s Gardens, he showed was in all probability subservient to sexual purposes.

As will be seen by reference to the nine published editions of the ‘Lists of Animals in the Society’s Collection,’ numerous specimens of the Black-buck have been acquired by the Society since that date, but, probably on account of the small free space assigned to them, little or no success has been met with in breeding this beautiful species in the Regent’s Park. On the other hand, at the Jardin d’Acclimatation at Paris and in other places under a climate more genial than our own, where large paddocks can be assigned to it, the Black-buck frequently reproduces in captivity and flourishes exceedingly.

No figures of the Black-buck having been drawn under the late Sir Victor Brooke’s directions, our illustrations of this beautiful Antelope (Plate XLVII.) have been taken by Mr. Smit from two mounted specimens in the British Museum of Natural History, the male of which, from Gwalior, was presented by Mr. C. Maries, of the Gwalior Museum.

Fig. 45.

Horns of Black-buck, ♂. (In the Collection of Mr. A. O. Hume.)

Fig. 46.

Abnormal horns of female Indian Antelope.
(In the collection of Mr. A. O. Hume.)

The National Collection possesses other examples of this Antelope, besides a fine series of heads and horns, mostly from Rajpootana and the Punjáb, belonging to the splendid collection of these objects presented to the British Museum by Mr. A. O. Hume, C.B. In order to show the large dimensions to which the horns of the adult male Black-buck attain in Rajpootana and Hurriana we give a drawing (fig. 45) of a beautiful pair still in the possession of Mr. Hume, which attained a length of no less than 28¼ inches measured in a straight line. On referring to the long list of the dimensions of the horns of this Antelope published in Mr. Rowland Ward’s ‘Records of Big Game,’ it will be found that only one pair of greater length than the horns which we now figure have been hitherto recorded. We also give (fig. 46) a figure of the skull and abnormal horns of a female of this Antelope in Mr. Hume’s Collection.

August, 1897.

Genus II. ÆPYCEROS.

Size large. No anteorbital glands. Tail fairly long. False hoofs absent. Hind feet with glandular tufts of hair placed shortly above the hoofs.

Skull without supraorbital pits or anteorbital fossæ; lachrymal vacuities small.

Horns of male medium or rather long, broadly lyrate, half-ringed, slightly compressed. Female hornless.

Range of the Genus. Southern Africa, northwards to Angola on the west, and to the Southern Soudan on the east.

Of this genus we are at present prepared to recognize only two species—the Common Pallah of Southern and Eastern Africa (Æ. melampus) and that of Angola (Æ. petersi). The latter may be readily distinguished from the ordinary form by having a prominent blackish mark running down the upper surface of the muzzle.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XLVIII

Wolf del, J. Smit lith

Hanhart imp.

The Pallah

ÆPYCEROS MELAMPUS.

Published by R. H. Porter.

77. THE PALLAH.
ÆPYCEROS MELAMPUS (Licht.).
[PLATE XLVIII.]

Pallah, Daniell, African Scenery, no. 9 (1812).

Antilope melampus, Licht. Reise, ii. p. 544, pl. iv. (1812); id. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 167 (1814); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1224, pl. cclxxiv. (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 388 (1821); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 456 (1822); Burch. Trav. ii. p. 301 (1824); id. List Mamm. pres. to B. M. p. 5 (1825) (Latakoo); H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 219, v. p. 334 (1827); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 374 (1827); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 462 (1829); Smuts, En. Mamm. Cap. p. 74 (1832); A. Sm. S. Afr. Quart. J. ii. p. 209 (1834); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 616 (1839); Harr. Wild Anim. S. Afr. p. 78, pl. xv. (1840); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. i. p. 261 (1840); Jard. Nat. Misc. vi. p. 217, pl. xxix. (1842); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1842); Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 162 (1843); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 417 (1844), v. p. 409 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 405 (1845); Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 56 (1847); Schinz, Mon. Antil. p. 7, pl. vi. (1848); Gray, Knowsl. Men. p. 6 (1850); Peters, Säug. Mossamb. p. 190 (1852) (Zambezi); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 190 (1853); Gieb. Säug. p. 313 (1853); Drumm. Large Game S. Afr. p. 426 (1875); Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 203 (1880); Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 477 (1887).

Æpyceros melampus, Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 271 (1847); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 267; Reprint, p. 87 (1848); Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 116; id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 65 (1852); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 234 (1862); Blyth, Cat. Mamm. Mus. As. Soc. p. 171 (1863); Scl. P. Z. S. 1864, p. 101 (Uzaramo); Kirk, P. Z. S. 1864, p. 656 (Zambesia); Hengl. & Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, liv. pt. 1, p. 590 (1866); Fitz. SB. Ak. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 157 (1869); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 42 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 112 (1873); Buckl. P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 283 & 291; id. op. cit. 1877, p. 454; Heugl. N.O.-Afr. ii. p. 103 (1877) (S. Kordofan); Selous, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 757; id. Hunter’s Wanderings S. Afr. p. 216 (1881); Pagenst. JB. Mus. Hamb. ii. p. 40 (1884); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 272 (1884); Johnston, Kilimanjaro, pp. 218 & 394, fig. 47 (1886); Noack, Zool. JB. ii. p. 206 (1887); Jent. Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173 (1887); id. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 138 (1889); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 170 (1892); Hunter, in Willoughby’s E. Afr. p. 288 (1889); Crawshay, P. Z. S. 1890, p. 654 (Nyasa); W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 169 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 341 (1891); Ward, Horn. Meas. (1) p. 99 (1892), (2) p. 142 (1896); Nicolls & Egl. Sportsm. S. Afr. p. 41, pl. i. fig. 3 (1892); True, Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. xv. p. 472 (1892); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 229 (1893); Lugard, E. Afr. i. p. 537 (1893); Scl. P. Z. S. 1893, p. 728 (L. Mweru); Barkley, P. Z. S. 1894, p. 132 (Pungwue Valley); Thos. P. Z. S. 1894, p. 145 (Nyasa); Jackson, in Badm. Big Game Shooting, i. pp. 285 & 306 (1894); Lorenz, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix., Notizen, p. 61 (1894) (Upper Limpopo); Rendall, P. Z. S. 1895, p. 359 (Transvaal).

“Antilope pallah, Cuv.,” Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. i. p. 261 (1840).

Strepsiceros suara, Matsch. SB. Ges. nat. Freund. 1892, p. 135 (skin, not horns).

Æpyceros suara, Matsch. Thierw. O.-Afr., Säug. p. 129 (1895).

Æpyceros melampus johnstoni, Thos. P. Z. S. 1892, p. 553 (Nyasa).

Æpyceros melampus typicus, Thos. l. c.

Æpyceros melampus holubi, Lorenz, Ann. Mus. Wien, ix., Notizen, p. 62 (1894) (“N. of Zambezi”).

Vernacular Names:—Pallah of English; Roodebok or Roibok of Dutch; Pala of Bechuanas; Napala of Matabili; Ee-pala of Makalakas; Inzero of Masubias; Umpara of Makubas; Lubondwee of Batongas; Kug-ar of Masaras (Selous); Impaya of Transvaal Shangaans (Rendall); Suare in Tette (Peters); Nswala of Nyasa tribes (Crawshay) and of East-African Swahilis (Jackson); Kulungu and Nosi near Kilimanjaro (Johnston); Om-gaba in Arabic (Heuglin).

Size comparatively large; height at the withers about 36 inches. General colour bright reddish brown, paler along the lower part of the sides. In southern specimens the colour is rather duller and browner than in northern ones, but the difference is very slight. Head dark fawn; a mark over the anterior half of the eye, chin, interramia, and upper part of throat white. Belly pure white. In front of the eye, on the side of the face, there is generally, though not always, in southern specimens an indistinct darker patch, but this is never present in northern ones. A black patch occasionally present on the crown. Ears of medium length, their outer sides fawn, with the terminal third black. Limbs like the back, a lighter ring round the pasterns just above the hoofs; a pair of prominent black tufts of longer hairs on the distal extremity of the hind cannon-bones (whence the name of the species). Tail fairly long, its upperside with a narrow black line along it, extending more or less on to the back, its sides fawn basally, white terminally.

Skull as above described. The dimensions of a male skull are:—Basal length 10·3 inches, greatest breadth 4·4, muzzle to orbit 6·1.

The horns are particularly graceful, lyrate, convex forwards below, concave above, evenly spreading. In length, in the south, good specimens may attain about 18 or 20 inches in a direct line, and in the north more, up to about 21 or 22 inches, the largest recorded being 23. But in the intermediate districts, Nyasa, Zambesia, and Gazaland, they are much shorter, fully adult horns being often only 14 inches in length.

Female similar to the male, but without horns.

Hab. Southern and Eastern Africa, from Bechuanaland to Southern Kordofan.

The first account of the Pallah seems to have appeared in one of the early numbers of a work called Daniell’s ‘Illustrations of African Animated Nature and Scenery,’ published in London in 1812. The author of the letterpress, however, did not give it a scientific name, believing that it might be the “Kob” of Buffon, or an allied species. At about the same date Prof. Lichtenstein, who had met with this animal during his journeyings in Southern Africa from 1803 to 1806, published a description and figure of it in his ‘Reise nach südlichen Afrika’ under the name Antilope melampus. This description, with additional particulars, was repeated in the same author’s classical monograph of the genus Antilope, published in 1814, and his name, taken from the black tufts of short hair at the back of the hind legs just above the foot (which are clearly shown in our figures), has been employed, almost universally, for this species by subsequent writers. Lichtenstein met with his specimens near Klip Fontein in Namaqualand, where it was found to occur in small herds of five or six individuals. In 1812 the celebrated African traveller Burchell likewise met with the Pallah in Bechuanaland, and secured the first specimens which arrived at the British Museum.

Little more was added to our knowledge of this beautiful Antelope until the publication of Harris’s ‘Portraits of the Game and Wild Animals of Southern Africa’ in 1840. Harris devotes his fifteenth plate mainly to the illustration of the “rare and graceful Pallah,” which he states “first gladdens the sight of the traveller in Southern Africa upon the elevated districts north of Latakoo.” Here in the wooded slopes and valleys that environ the mountain-ranges of Kurrichane and Cashan it was met with in families of from twelve to twenty individuals of both sexes.

Harris, with all his experience, could recall to his memory “few objects more picturesque than the graceful figures of a wandering herd of these Antelopes dancing and bounding through the thousand stems of the acacia-groves in all the poetry of motion.” To these wooded districts Harris considered the Pallah to be restricted, not a single specimen having been observed in the open country. The flesh of the Pallah he characterizes as “tender and palatable,” although “rather dry,” like that of most Antelopes.

In these days, however, as we are informed by Messrs. Nicolls and Eglington, it is only on rare occasions that the Pallah is met with in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and its present distribution is described by them as follows:—“A few herds still linger in the Transvaal along the Crocodile River. Almost exterminated in the regions through which the north-west tributaries of that river flow, it is only when the Zambesi is reached that the Palla is again to be frequently met with in any number. On the Chobe River it is still fairly common, being unknown on the Botletle, but it is only after passing the shores of Lake ’Ngami, and reaching the densely wooded banks of the Tonke, that the species again makes its appearance in a westerly direction. In those parts of Mashonaland and Matabeleland where it is not subject to continual persecution it is still fairly numerous. The Palla is highly gregarious, and frequents the thick, forest-clad banks of rivers, from which it never strays, except after periods of heavy rains, and then only when the pans and vleys (which are always dry during the greater portion of the year) are for a time filled with water. In remote parts, not very much frequented by man, the herds often exceed a hundred in number. Where not continually disturbed, this Antelope, so elegant and graceful of motion, is not by any means shy when approached, generally running but a short distance, and then standing and looking back again, a habit which easily permits of its being stalked.”

In the Transvaal, Mr. Barber kindly informs us, the Pallah was plentiful in the Waterburg and Lydenburg districts up to 1880. Now, however, it has been driven away many miles east, into the valleys that intersect the Lebombo range.

On the north-west of the Cape Colony the Pallah, as we shall see presently, is represented by a nearly allied, though probably distinct, form. But on the eastern side of Africa the Pallah has a wide range, and extends north certainly into British East Africa, and probably still farther into Kordofan. We will endeavour to trace its range throughout this wide area.

Mr. Selous found the Pallah on the tributaries of the Limpopo, and thence northwards on the banks of every river and stream which he has explored in Matabeleland and Mashonaland. The Impalas of the Limpopo he considers to be larger than those of the Chobe.

Peters records the Pallah as met with in the mountainous parts of the Portuguese province of Mozambique, near Tette, Chidima, and Sena, and gives its native names as here ‘Psuara’ or ‘Suara.’ Passing into British Central Africa we find this Antelope recorded by Mr. Crawshay as not common anywhere in Nyasaland, but where met with, as a rule, found in even larger numbers than the Waterbuck. Mr. Crawshay has seen it in companies of one hundred or more, and gives a number of localities around Lake Nyasa in which he has come across herds of it. No Antelope, Mr. Crawshay tells us, can compare with the Pallah in fleetness of foot, and certainly “no other can display such wonderful leaping powers. They go off like the proverbial arrow from the bow, and with most beautiful gliding bounds, cover the ground without apparently the least effort.” In Northern Nyasaland, Mr. J. B. Yule tells us, the Pallah is found only along the stony ridges between Deep Bay and Karonga.

In the highlands of Zomba and the adjacent districts of Nyasaland a local race of the Common Pallah is found, distinguished by its slenderer skull and much shorter horns; but as regards the colour of its fur it is precisely similar to the South-African form. Thomas was at one time of opinion that this highland form should constitute a separate subspecies, and proposed to name it after its discoverer, Sir Harry Johnston, who has done so much in investigating the fauna of British Central Africa, Æpyceros melampus johnstoni. Thomas, however, since the examination of further specimens is not disposed to insist upon the necessity of recognizing this subspecies as distinct.

In the low, dry, thicket-covered hills to the north of Lake Mweru both Mr. Crawshay and Mr. Sharpe have obtained specimens of this Antelope, which, according to the latter, is often confounded by the natives with the Lechee and Vardon’s Antelope under the common name “msala.”

In German East Africa, according to Dr. Matschie’s excellent Handbook, the Pallah occurs in many localities all over the country. At first misled by the association of the horns of a Lesser Koodoo and a skin of a Pallah, Dr. Matschie proposed to found a new species of Koodoo upon this animal, and to call it Strepsiceros suara. Afterwards recognizing his mistake he proposed to retain the term suara for the East-African Pallah, and to separate it specifically from the South-African animal as Æpyceros suara, on the ground of certain small discrepancies in colour. But after examining many specimens of the Pallah from East Africa we have come to the conclusion that the differences pointed out by Dr. Matschie are not confined to individuals from the same locality, and we cannot therefore regard Æ. suara as a distinct species.

The late Mr. F. Holmwood, formerly H.B.M. Consul-General at Zanzibar, wrote to us, “I have met with the Pallah in the countries of Usagara and Uzeguha, about 150 miles straight inland from Zanzibar, where they were very plentiful. The country has an elevation of 500 feet and is well watered. The Pallah go in troops of from 15 to 120. I once saw a pack of wild dogs hunt and run down one of these Antelopes which they first separated from a large herd.”

In British East Africa the Pallah is well known, and has been obtained by all the great sportsmen that have visited that territory. Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, in his appendix to Sir John Willoughby’s ‘East Africa,’ speaks of this Antelope as “common everywhere in thin bush and on the plains.” Dr. Abbott, as recorded by Mr. True, sent to Washington a good series of specimens obtained in 1889 from Taveta and Mount Kilimanjaro, where it had likewise been met with by Sir Harry Johnston during the Kilimanjaro Expedition of 1884. Mr. F. J. Jackson, in his notes on Antelopes published in the first volume of ‘Big Game Shooting’ of the Badminton Library, tells us that the Pallah is not met with in the coast-district of British East Africa. “But it occurs in small herds about 60 miles inland, and is plentiful at Adda and in the Teita country, and is found as far north as Turkwel in suitable localities, that is, in park-like open bush and thinly-wooded country, not far from water.” “The best heads,” Mr. Jackson says, “are obtained between Lakes Navaisha and Baringo, particularly in the vicinity of the small salt-lake Elmatita, where these beautiful beasts inhabit the open woods of juniper-trees.” In his paper on the Antelopes of the Mau district, recently read before the Zoological Society, Mr. Jackson likewise speaks of this Antelope, and again mentions the large size of the horns of the bucks in that part of British East Africa, which he gives as 22 and 23 inches from base to tip.

Fig. 47.

Head of Pallah, ♂, front view.

Whether the Pallah ranges further north than British East Africa and the neighbouring district of Turkwel is perhaps not quite certain, though it may possibly be the case. Our only authority on the subject is Heuglin, who states that the Pallah occurs on the White Nile at Scherk-el-Akaba, and is “very common” on the Djur River, where it is known by the Arabic name of ‘Om-gàba,’ or ‘Om-sàba.’ But Heuglin’s observations on this point, so far as we know, have not been confirmed, and we have never seen specimens from this locality.

On the whole, therefore, we consider Æpyceros melampus to be a wide-ranging species, extending from Bechuanaland in the south throughout the eastern side of Africa to British East Africa on the north, and perhaps reaching even to the White Nile. But over all these districts there is a certain amount of variety amongst the specimens, and we are not, therefore, at present inclined to recognize, even as subspecies, what have been designated as suara, johnstoni, and holubi, although future researches may lead us to a different conclusion.

So far as we know, the Pallah has been brought to Europe alive on two occasions only, and in both instances the animals were imported by Mr. C. Reiche, of Alfeld, from the northern part of the Transvaal. The first specimen (in 1890) went to the Zoological Garden of Berlin and the second (in 1890) to the Zoological Garden of Vienna. Both were young males, and generally of a reddish colour, with the horns slightly developed. They did not live long after their arrival in the Gardens.

The Pallah is represented in our National Collection by a mounted male from Kilimanjaro shot by Mr. F. J. Jackson and by a mounted head from Lake Elmetaita presented by Captain Lugard, the horns of which are amongst the longest of known specimens. There is likewise a mounted head from the Zomba highlands presented by Sir Harry Johnston and representing the short-horned race which inhabits the mountain-districts south of Lake Nyasa. Besides these there are skulls, skins, and horns from various districts in South and East Africa.

Our illustration of the Pallah (Plate XLVIII.) has been put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a water-colour drawing by Wolf prepared for the late Sir Victor Brooke and now belonging to Sir Douglas Brooke. The drawing is noted on the back as having been taken from a head belonging to Mr. Selous and a loose skin. It represents an adult male in two positions. The female, as already stated, is absolutely hornless.

The woodcut (fig. 47, p. 23), which gives a front view of a good head of the Pallah, was drawn by Mr. Smit under Sir Victor Brooke’s directions.

August, 1897.

78. THE ANGOLAN PALLAH.
ÆPYCEROS PETERSI, Bocage.

Æpyceros petersi, Boc. P. Z. S. 1878, p. 741; Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim. (4) iv. p. 479 (1887); Scl. P. Z. S. 1890, p. 460 (woodcut of head); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 341 (1891); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 231 (1893).

Æpyceros melampus, Jent. Notes Leyd. Mus. ix. p. 173 (1887) (?) (Mossamedes).

Similar, so far as is yet known, to Æ. melampus in all respects except that on the face, as is shown in our woodcut (p. 26), there is a prominent brown patch running along the top of the muzzle. This character is said to be perfectly constant, and we therefore admit for the present the validity of the Angolan form as a distinct species.

The Angolan Pallah was first recognized as a distinct species by Prof. J. V. Barboza du Bocage, a distinguished naturalist of Portugal, in a list of Angolan Antelopes published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1878. M. du Bocage based his description upon two specimens forwarded to the Lisbon Museum by the well-known explorer d’Anchieta. Of these the male was stated to have come from Capangombe, the female from Humbe—two places both in the province of Mossamedes north of the Cunene River. M. Bocage distinguished the new species from Æ. melampus principally by its black face, and dedicated it to the late Professor Peters, of Berlin, whose opinion agreed with his that it was distinct. It is probable that the skull from the Cunene River, obtained by Heer Van der Kellen in October 1885, and referred by Dr. Jentink, in his paper on Mammals from Mossamedes, to Æ. melampus, may belong properly to Æ. petersi.

Fig. 48.

Front view of head of Angolan Pallah.

(P. Z. S. 1890, p. 460.)

In 1889 Capt. F. Cookson, during a sporting excursion into Hasholand or Kaokoland, in the neighbourhood of the Cunene River met with some twenty or more specimens of this Antelope, and brought back a single head to England. This head, mounted by Mr. Rowland Ward, was exhibited by Sclater at a meeting of the Zoological Society on June 17th, 1890, as an example of Æpyceros petersi. The notice of Sclater’s exhibition published in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ was accompanied by an illustration, which, by the kindness of the Council of the Zoological Society, we are enabled to reproduce (fig. 48). The dimensions of these horns are given by Mr. Rowland Ward, in his ‘Records of Big Game’ (1896), as 18¾ inches in a straight line and 22¾ on front curve, and the distance between the tips as 12¼ inches.

So far as we know, this is all the evidence to be offered as to the existence of this species, concerning which further particulars would be very desirable. There is no example of it in the British Museum.

August, 1897.

Genus III. SAIGA.

Size medium. Nose large, elongate, bent downwards, and inflated; the nostrils opening downwards. Tail short. Mammæ 4. Accessory hoofs present.

Skull with short nasals and premaxillaries, and an exceedingly large and high nasal opening; small supraorbital pits; no lachrymal vacuities; anteorbital fossæ shallow. Lower premolars two, at least in the recent species.

Horns of medium length, cylindrical, rather irregularly lyrate, strongly ringed, pale whitish or amber-coloured. Female hornless.

Range of the Genus. Steppes of S.E. Europe and Western Asia.

One species only.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. XLIX.

Wolf del. J. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Saiga

SAIGA TATARICA.

Published by R. H. Porter.

79. THE SAIGA.
SAIGA TATARICA (Linn.).
[PLATE XLIX.]

Ibex imberbis, Gmel. N. Comm. Ac. Petrop. v. p. 345 (1760) & vii. p. 39, pl. xix. (♂ ♀) (1761). (Not binomial.)

Le Saiga, Buff. Hist. Nat. xii. p. 198, pl. xxii. fig. 2 (horn) (1764).

Capra tatarica, Linn. Syst. Nat. (12) i. p. 97 (1766) (ex Gmel.); Müll. Natursyst. i. p. 417 (1773).

Saiga tatarica, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 160 (1843); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 55 (1847); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 3 (1850); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 112; id. Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 51, pl. vi. figs. 1 & 2 (skull) (1852); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 189 (1853); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 231 (1862); Glitsch, Bull. Soc. Moscow, 1865, p. 207; Sclat. P. Z. S. 1867, p. 240, pl. xvii.; Murie, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 451 (anatomy & position); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 33 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 102 (1873); Scl. List An. Z. S. (8) p. 143 (1883), (9) p. 157 (1896); Flow. & Gars. Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 265 (1884); Sterndale, Mamm. Ind. p. 468 (1884); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 341 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 101 (1892), (2) p. 145 (1896); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 163 (1893).

Antilope tatarica, Forst. Descr. Anim. p. 390 (1844); Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 270 (1847); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 266; Reprint, p. 86 (1848).

Colus tataricus, Brehm, Thierl. iii. p. 283 (1880).

Antilope saiga, Pall. Misc. Zool. p. 6 (1766); id. Spic. Zool. xii. pp. 14 & 21 (1777); Zimm. Geogr. Gesch. ii. p. 121 (1780); Bodd. Elench. Anim. p. 143 (1785); Schr. Säug. pl. cclxxvi. (1787); Gmel. Linn. S. N. i. p. 185 (1788); Kerr, Linn. An. K. p. 309 (1792); Donnd. Zool. Beytr. i. p. 626 (1792); Link, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795); G. Cuv. Tabl. Élém. p. 163 (1798); Bechst. Syst. Uebers. vierf. Thierr. ii. p. 645 (1800); Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 339 (1801); Turt. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 112 (1802); G. Cuv. Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 229 (1804); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (1) xxiv. Tabl. p. 33 (1804); Tiedem. Zool. i. p. 409 (1808); Pall. Zoogr. Ross.-As. i. p. 252 (1811); G. Fisch. Zoogn. iii. p. 428 (1814); Afz. N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); Desm. N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 181 (1816); G. Cuv. R. A. i. p. 261 (1817); Goldf. Schr. Säug. v. p. 1216 (1818); Schinz, Cuv. Thierr. i. p. 389 (1821); Desmoul. Dict. Class. d’H. N. i. p. 44–2. (1822); Desm. Mamm. ii. p. 452 (1822); Less. Man. Mamm. p. 391 (1827); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 458 (1829); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 289 (1836); Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 616 (1839); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. i. p. 260 (1840); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1842); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 420 (1844), v. p. 402 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 408 (1845); id. Mon. Antil. p. 12 (1848); Gieb. Säug. p. 313 (1853); Nehring, Z. Ges. Erdkunde Berl. xxvi. pp. 327 & 338 (1891) (distribution); id. Zool. Gart. 1891, p. 328.

Capra sayga, Forst. Phil. Trans. lvii. p. 344 (1767).

Antilope (Gazella) saiga, Licht. Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 171 (1814).

Cerophorus (Antilope) saiga, Blainv. Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Colus saiga, Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. pt. 1, p. 161 (1809).

Saiga saiga, Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 134 (1887); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 165 (1892).

Antilope scythica, Pall. Spic. Zool. fasc. i. p. 9 (1767); Müll. Natursyst. Suppl. p. 53 (1776); Erxl. Syst. R. A. p. 289 (1777); Zimm. Spec. Zool. Geog. p. 541 (1777); Gatt. Brev. Zool. i. p. 83 (1780); Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1365 (1838).

Cemas colus, Oken, Lehrb. Nat. p. 736 (1816).

Antilope colus, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 226, v. p. 335 (1827); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1812).

Saiga colus, Gray, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846).

Gazella colus, Turner, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 168.

Vernacular Names:—Saigàk in Russian; Suhak or Baran polnii in Polish; Ak-kirk of the Tartars; Sogak of the Caucasians; Gorossuun, the male Ohna, the female Scharcholdsi, of the Calmucks; Jaban-choin of the Turks; Beschen-Chusch of Circassians; Linjodsha of Chinese.—Pallas.

Height at withers about 30 inches. General colour in summer dull yellowish, with a whitish throat and indistinct facial markings; in winter nearly uniform whitish all over, without markings anywhere. Ears very short, thickly haired. Tail short, uniform in colour with the body.

Skull and horns of male as above described (p. 29). The dimensions of an old male skull are:—Basal length 9·5 inches, greatest breadth 5·1, muzzle to orbit 6·3.

The horns attain a length of about 13 or 14 inches, and are of a peculiar waxy or pale amber-colour.

Female similar, but without horns.

Hab. Steppes of Southern Russia, and South-eastern Siberia.

The Saiga, although closely allied to the Gazelles in structure, is, as will be seen from our figure, very different in external appearance, especially as regards the bloated form of the nose in the adult male, which gives it a most ungainly look and renders it easily distinguishable from all its allies of this group.

The Saiga was known to many of the ancient writers, and is described and figured by Gesner, in his ‘History of Quadrupeds,’ as an inhabitant of Scythia and Sarmatia, under the name “Colus,” which is said to have been formed by transposition from the native name “Sulac.” The earliest good account of it, however, is that of the well-known naturalist J. G. Gmelin, who met with it during his travels in Siberia between 1733 and 1743, and described it at full length, in an article on new quadrupeds published at St. Petersburg in 1760, under the name of “Ibex imberbis.” Upon Gmelin’s Ibex imberbis Linnæus, in his ‘Systema Naturæ,’ based his Capra tatarica. Of the two generic names proposed for this Antelope, Saiga by Gray in 1843, and Colus by Wagner in the following year, we naturally prefer the oldest, and adopt as the proper name of this Antelope, which is the sole representative of its genus, Saiga tatarica.

Buffon, in his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ also employed Saiga as the name of this animal and based his account of it mainly upon Gmelin’s description, stating, however, that there were specimens of its horns in the Royal Cabinet at Paris. Following the prior authorities, he describes the Saiga as a kind of wild goat found at that epoch in Hungary, Poland, Tartary, and Southern Siberia in herds on the plains, very fleet and active, and difficult of capture. We shall see, however, that the range of this animal in Europe has become very much more restricted in recent times.

The best modern account of the Saiga is that given in 1865, in the Bulletin of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow, by Herr Constantin Glitsch, of Sarepta on the Lower Volga, who was employed for two years by the Imperial Russian Society of Acclimatisation to obtain living examples of this Antelope for the Zoological Garden of Moscow.

In the days of Pallas, Herr Glitsch tells us, the Saiga had a wide distribution in Europe, extending from the borders of Poland, all across the Dnieper and the great flat southern portion of Russia to the Caucasus and the Caspian. The European herds of this animal were also often reinforced by large accessions from the steppes of Western Asia, which, driven by stress of famine from their native haunts, crossed the Ural and the Volga by the ice in winter. A hundred years later we find a great change in the range of the Saiga, caused by the increase of cultivation and population in the European portion of its range, which has driven this animal back into the East. On the Dnieper, Herr Glitsch tells us, the Saiga has altogether disappeared, in the Ukraine it is no longer to be found, and even on the Don, where it was formerly so plentiful, it is quite a scarce animal. Nowadays, in fact, in Europe the Saiga is confined to the Kalmuk Steppes between the Don and the Volga, and is found only within the triangle lying between these two rivers, of which Tzaritzyn on the Volga forms the northern point.

On the flat and treeless plains which lie within these limits the Saiga still exists in tolerable abundance, though diminishing in numbers yearly as population increases. In the summer months it is distributed over the whole of this area; in winter, beginning from November, it is driven by the snow and cold from its northern resorts towards the south, where it finds shelter in the rich grassy valleys of the Sal and the Manitsch. Here the Saiga passes the winter on ground generally free from snow. Here it breeds in the spring, and as soon as the snow is melted in the more northern plains it begins its migration to the North. At this season the Saigas go northwards in considerable herds, the bucks first, followed by the does, and by the end of May they have all reached the most northern boundaries of their range. But there are many circumstances which interfere with the regularity of this migration, and at Sarepta, near the north end of their area, there are remarkable variations in their numbers. In some summers only a few scattered individuals are to be met with, in other years large herds are to be found in this district throughout the summer. But in very severe winters, when even the most southern districts inhabited by this Antelope are invaded by excessive cold and deep snow, the hungry beasts are driven all over the country in search of food, and stray even as far north as the vicinity of Sarepta. On these occasions whole herds are often entombed in the snow-drifts and fall an easy prey to the natives, who follow them on horseback and slaughter them by hundreds. Under these circumstances it can easily be understood that the Saiga is a gradually vanishing animal in Europe. One thing, however, is in their favour, that the males, whose presence is betrayed by their horns, fall more easy victims to the hunter than the hornless females, which are more readily concealed in the herbage and thus escape notice.

Fig. 49.

Group of Saigas (1/12 nat. size).

(From the ‘Royal Natural History,’ vol. ii. p. 298.)

Herr Glitsch gives us detailed and excellent descriptions of the form and colouring of the Saiga, and of the other peculiarities of the animal of both sexes and in all ages. In the winter coat the hairs on the upper part of the body are from two to three inches long, rather shorter on the underparts, and a long beard extends from the chin down the middle line of the neck to the breast. The older the animal is the brighter is its winter dress.

The voice of the Saiga is stated by Glitsch to be a deep loud bleat, which is frequently uttered by the young animals, but by the older animals only in the pairing-season and when they are wounded. The hearing, the sight, and the smell of the Saiga are all highly developed, and combine to render it a very difficult animal for the hunter to approach.

The Saigas are said to begin breeding about the middle of December (new style), and at this season commonly assemble in large herds in the warm side-valleys of the Sal and Manitsch, which are mostly free from snow. At this time the young are said to be driven away from the parents in flocks into the thickets, while the males fight fiercely one with another for the possession of the females. The female is stated to go five months with young, and to bring forth about the middle of May amongst the higher vegetation of the steppe. As a rule, she produces two young ones, seldom only one. The mother is sometimes seen followed by three young ones, but in such a case the third is, probably, an adopted animal. In the morning, after suckling her young ones, the mother leaves them concealed in the herbage, and goes far off to feed, returning to them only in the evening and staying with them all night. In about four weeks’ time the young Saigas learn to feed themselves, and the young horns begin to appear in the bucks. They suck, however, till the end of October, and follow after the mother up to the winter. The food of the Saiga consists not so much of the true grasses as of the leafy shrubs of the steppes, such as Artemisia, Atriplex, and Glycirhiza, as well as Inula dysenterica and other saline plants.

Besides mankind, Herr Glitsch tells us, the Saiga Antelope in the Volga district has no special enemy. The wolves and foxes, the only large beasts of prey of these steppes, can only attack quite young animals, the older ones easily making their escape. They have one great plague in the steppes, however, in the insects, especially a species of Œstrus, by which at times they seem to be driven nearly crazy, and with the eggs and larvæ of which their skins seem to be almost always infested.

The flesh of the Saiga is said to be particularly tender and well-flavoured, and more like good mutton than anything else.

The favourite mode of chase of the Saiga is to drive out on to the steppes at early dawn with a cart containing provisions, and, after hiding the cart in some ravine, to stalk them with a rifle in the same manner as other large game-animals. But they are also occasionally taken in steel traps which are set upon their favourite runs. The Kalmuks use leather slings for the same purpose.

Beyond the Ural River the Saiga extends widely over the Kirghiz Steppes of Central Asia north of the Aral. Mr. William Bateson, F.R.S., has kindly favoured us with the following notes of what he heard and saw of the Saiga when in this district in 1896–7:—

“The Saiga is fairly common in the Kirghiz Steppes, inhabiting the dry tracts covered with various species of Artemisia (Kirghiz, Jusun), upon which no doubt it feeds. It is not found in the sandy regions of the Kara-kum. I believe also that it does not live in the moister steppes, which bear a meadow vegetation. Its northern distribution in West Central Asia must therefore be bounded by the valley of the Irtish and its tributaries, which is all meadow-land. I met with Saigas first at the end of July 1896, in the neighbourhood of Lake Tschalkar, in the Turgai district. In this region we came upon their tracks constantly, and occasionally saw herds of various sizes from ten or a dozen to about a hundred. When we appeared they made off. In doing so I noticed that they generally travelled at right angles to our line of approach, though this may have been due to some accident in the lie of the ground. The Kirghiz catch them in traps set in their runs. A young one so caught was brought to me on July 27, 1896. Its horns and horn-cores were only slightly developed.

“In the following year I travelled from Kozalinsk, on the Aral Sea, to Lake Balkhash, following the Shu River. In this journey we saw Saigas from time to time on the edge of the Bek Pak Dala, or Hungry Steppe, in April, but no large herds were seen. The Kirghiz spoke of them as common in the Bek Pak. Both this district and the Tschalkar Steppes, except for wells on the caravan-roads, are almost waterless after the snow has disappeared, so probably the Saiga can subsist without more water than the dew and its food-plants provide.

“The Kirghiz name of the Saiga is ‘Kiik’ and the word Saiga is only known to them as Russian, in which language, however, the word is not really ‘Saiga,’ but ‘Säigak.’”

As regards the range of the Saiga at the present time, Herr E. Büchner, Director of the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, has kindly favoured us with the following particulars:—

The Saiga is still met with, although very unfrequently, in the country of the Ural Cossacks between the Wolga and the Ural, and extends occasionally into the Government of Samara. East of the river Ural its range extends over the Kirghiz Steppes and the steppe district of all West Siberia—Turgai, Akmolinsk, and Semipalatinsk. South of this the Saiga is also found in the steppes of Russian Turkestan and in the Dsungarian steppes of Western Mongolia, but not in Transcaspia.

Such is the range of the Saiga at present. As already shown, it was much wider than now even within the period of history. But when we go back into the Pleistocene times we have good evidence that the Saiga had a very much more extensive range, its fossil remains having been obtained from the caverns and superficial deposits of Hungary, Belgium, and Southern France. In the last-named country the researches of French palæontologists have proved that its bones and teeth occur in considerable numbers in certain of the cave deposits in the Departments of Vienne, Dordogne, Tarn-et-Garonne, and Haute-Garonne. Moreover, as shown by Mons. Gervais, at least one recognizable sketch of the head of the Saiga has been found on an artificially incised bone of the character so often met with in caverns where relics of human handiwork occur. It appears, therefore, that the Saiga inhabited Western Europe as late as the era of Palæolithic man, and was, moreover, in all probability one of the objects of his chase.

Still more interesting, however, is it to find that, as shown by Mr. A. Smith Woodward in a paper read before the Zoological Society in 1890, the Saiga was also found in former days in Great Britain. During excavations made in that year in the Pleistocene deposits near Twickenham, a fine example of the frontlet and horn-cores of an adult male Saiga tatarica was discovered. By the kindness of the Zoological Society we are enabled to reproduce the figure of this interesting specimen (fig. 50, p. 39), which was exhibited by Mr. A. Smith Woodward on the occasion in question, and is now in the gallery of the British Museum.

Finally we may mention that, as has been recorded by Prof. Nehring, there have been discovered in Moravia remains of a Saiga differing from the living species in having three, in place of two, lower premolars[2]. From the occurrence of these remains, and those of other mammals now characteristic of the steppes in Western Europe, it has been argued by geologists that steppe-like conditions and climate must formerly have prevailed over large districts that have now quite changed their character.

Fig. 50.

Frontlet and horns of Saiga (fossil), ♂. ½ nat. size.

(P. Z. S. 1890, p. 614.)

The Saiga has occasionally, but not often, been brought alive to the menageries of Western Europe. In 1864 and 1865 young male specimens of this Antelope were first received from Moscow by the Zoological Society of London. In November 1866 a pair of Saigas was deposited in the Zoological Society’s Gardens, and subsequently purchased, after living for several months in the Regent’s Park Gardens. An excellent coloured figure of these strange animals was made by Mr. J. Wolf in 1867, and published in the Society’s ‘Proceedings,’ and after their death Dr. Murie, then Prosector to the Society, based upon them an elaborate account of their structure and anatomy, which will be found in the volume of the same publication for the year 1870. By the kindness of the Zoological Society we are enabled to reproduce here an excellent figure of the head of the adult male Saiga in its winter coat, taken from a drawing made by Mr. Berjeau under Dr. Murie’s supervision. We cannot do better than refer those who are interested in the structure and anatomy of the Saiga to Dr. Murie’s excellent article, from which, however, we venture to borrow his account of the cutaneous glands of this curious form, which appear to be not less than ten in number.

Fig. 51.

Head of male Saiga in its winter dress.

(P. Z. S. 1870, p. 495.)

“In the Saiga there are two small suborbital glandular sacs, the so-called crumen, lachrymal sinus, or tearpit of some authors, which yield a thick whitish or pale yellow exudation. These are situated in front of the orbit, and slightly below the median transverse line of the eye. In the younger female the small external openings of these were placed ¾ of an inch, and in the male 1½ inch, in advance of the orbital ring; but the sinuses or sacs themselves lay in the broadish and moderately excavated infraorbital fossæ.

“Each foot, as in the sheep, possesses an interdigital sac about 1½ inch in depth, and opening by a narrow constricted aperture at its front and upper part. The orifice is hidden by very short closely placed yellowish hairs, whilst below these the sac is superficially covered by a tuft of much stronger and longer hairs. The secretion derived from these interdigital bags is yellow and of a hardish ceruminous character.

“On the anterior aspect, but slightly to the inner side, of each fore knee is a small dermal gland, or a thickening of the cutaneous tissues, covered by a brownish patch of firm hairs.

“In the inguinal regions of both sexes bare oblong or lozenge-shaped spaces exist; each of these is 5 inches or more in extreme long diameter. Upon these inner edges in the female the imperfectly developed udders and four teats are situated.” (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 500.)

The Saiga is represented in the British Museum by a mounted pair from Sarepta on the Volga, and by other skins and skeletons from the same locality. There are also some horns obtained by Dr. O. Finsch on the steppe near Saisan, on the Russo-Chinese frontier, in 1876 (see Finsch, ‘Reise nach West-Sibirien im Jahre 1876,’ p. 193).

Our figure of the Saiga (Plate XLIX.) has been put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a black-and-white sketch prepared by Mr. Wolf for the late Sir Victor Brooke. The original sketch, which belongs to Sir Douglas Brooke, has been kindly lent to us for examination. We regret to say, however, that we have no particulars as to the individual from which Mr. Wolf’s drawing was taken.

August, 1897.

Genus IV. PANTHOLOPS.

Size medium. Nose less bent downwards than in Saiga, but more swollen laterally, at least in the male. No suborbital glands. Tail short. Mammæ 2. Large glands in feet and groin.

Skull without distinct pits between the eyes, or lachrymal vacuities, or anteorbital fossæ. Nasal opening ample, but not so large as that of Saiga.

Horns long, erect, compressed, slightly diverging, nearly straight below, evenly curving forwards above; ringed in front. Female hornless.

Range of Genus. Plateau of Tibet.

One species only.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. L.

Wolf del, J. Smit lith.

Hanhart imp.

The Chiru.

PANTHOLOPS HODGSONI.

Published by R. H Porter

80. THE CHIRU.
PANTHOLOPS HODGSONI (Abel).

Antilope hodgsoni, Abel, Calc. Gov. Gazette, cf. Phil. Mag. lxviii. p. 234 (1826); Edin. Journ. Sc. vii. p. 164 (1827); ‘Editor,’ Glean, in Sc. i. p. 144 (1829); J. B. Fisch. Syn. Mamm. p. 462 (1829); Hodgs. Gleanings in Sci. ii. p. 348, pls. iii., v. (1830); id. P. Z. S. 1831, p. 52, 1832, p. 14, 1833, p. 110; Laurill. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 617 (1839); Gerv. Dict. Sci. Nat. i. p. 264 (1840); Wagn. Schr. Säug. Supp. iv. p. 420 (1844), v. p. 402 (1855); Schinz, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 415 (1845); Sund. Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 270 (1847); id. Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 266; Reprint, p. 86 (1848); Gieb. Säug. p. 314 (1853); Hooker, Himalayan Journal, ii. pp. 132 & 158 (1854); Przewalski, Mongolia (Russian ed.), ii. pl. iii. ♂, pl. iv. fig. 2 ♀; Morgan’s Transl. ii. pp. 204 & 223 (1876).

Pantholops hodgsoni, Hodgs. P. Z. S. 1834, p. 80; id. J. A. S. B. xi. p. 282 (1842); id. Calc. Journ. iv. p. 291 (1844); Gray, Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 53, pl. vi. figs. 3, 4 (skull) (1852); Adams, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 521; Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 232 (1862); Fitz. SB. Wien, lix. 1, p. 162 (1869); Gray, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 33 (1872); id. Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 102 (1873); Blanf. Yark. Miss., Mamm. p. 89, pl. xvi. (1879); Sterndale, Mamm. Ind. p. 469 (1884); Kinloch, Large Game Shooting, p. 106, plate of head (1885); Jent. Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, ix.) p. 134 (1889); id. Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (op. cit. xi.) p. 166 (1892); W. Scl. Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 163 (1891); Blanf. Mamm. Brit. Ind. p. 524 (1891); Flow. & Lyd. Mamm. p. 341 (1891); Ward, Horn Meas. (1) p. 102 (1892), (2) p. 146 (1896); Lyd. Horns and Hoofs, p. 157 (1892); Percy, Badm. Big Game Shooting, ii. p. 335 (1894).

Kemas hodgsoni, Gray, List Mamm. B. M. p. 157 (1843); id. Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846); id. Cat. Mamm. Nepal (Hodgson Coll.) (1) p. 26 (1846), (2) p. 13 (1863); id. List Ost. B. M. p. 55 (1874); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 3 (1850); id. P. Z. S. 1850, p. 112; Horsf. Cat. Mamm. Mus. E.I. Co. p. 166 (1851); Temm. Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 189 (1853); Blanf. J. A. S. B. xli. pt. 2, p. 39 (1872).

Antilope kemas, H. Sm. Griff. An. K. iv. p. 196, v. p. 328 (1827); Less. Compl. Buff. x. p. 285 (1836).

“The Chíru,” Quart. Orient. Mag. ii. p. 160 (1824), undè

Antilope chiru, Less. Man. Mamm. p. 371 (1827) (ex Quart. Orient. Mag. 1824, p. 260); Oken, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1369 (1838); Less. N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 179 (1842).

Vernacular Names:—Chíru of Southern Tibetans and of sportsmen generally; Tsus ♂, Chus ♀, Chiru and Chuhu (Blanford); Orongo of Northern Tibetans (Przewalski).

Height at withers about 31 or 32 inches. Hair very close, thick, and crisp. Colour pale fawn, with a peculiar fulvous or pinkish suffusion, especially on the flanks. Belly whitish, not sharply separated from the colour of the sides. Face of male black, crown and neck whitish. Sides of muzzle in male markedly swollen. Ears short, but pointed, whitish. Limbs pale greyish white, a black line running down their anterior faces in the male; female without blacker markings. Tail short, coloured like the rump.

Skull dimensions of a male:—Basal length 10·2 inches, greatest breadth 5, muzzle to orbit 6·4.

Horns long, very graceful, nearly straight, only slightly curved backwards below and forwards above, remarkably uniform in length and curvature, generally from 23 to 26 inches in length, the largest recorded being just under 28 inches.

Female similar to male, but without horns.

Hab. Plateau of Tibet.

The Chiru, or Tibetan Antelope as it is often called, although known by the vague reports of the natives as long ago, perhaps, as 1816, was first introduced to science by Abel in 1826, from information and specimens furnished to him by the great naturalist and collector Hodgson, whose name it worthily bears. As we learn from Hodgson’s article published in ‘Gleanings in Science’ for 1830, it was in 1824 or 1825 that a live Chiru was sent to him in Nepal, where he was British Resident at the Court of Catmandu. Hodgson, as was his custom, drew up an elaborate description of the animal, and, after its death, sent the notes along with the skin to Dr. C. Abel, who was at that time one of the Secretaries of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta. Dr. Abel, after making a few additions to the description, and proposing to name the animal Antilope hodgsoni, read his paper at one of the Meetings of the Asiatic Society, and, as it appears from notices in the ‘Philosophical Magazine’ of 1826 and ‘Brewster’s Journal of Science’ of 1827, had it published in the Calcutta Government Gazette or Journal.

But Hodgson, probably owing to the death of Dr. Abel shortly afterwards, was unaware of this fact, and believing that Dr. Abel had lost or neglected his communication, redescribed the species in 1830 under the name Antilope hodgsoni, which he was told that Dr. Abel had applied to it. At that date (1830) Hodgson states that the living specimen already referred to was the only example he had ever seen of this animal, and that up to that time he had never been able to get another example of it alive or dead. It is clear, however, that Hodgson shortly after this date was enabled to obtain further specimens of this Antelope. In one of his letters published in the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1832 it is stated that three individuals had been examined, and in a subsequent communication (dated from Nepal in February 1834) skins of the Chiru of both sexes are referred to as being amongst other skins of mammals and birds which had been recently despatched to the Society. In the latter communication also Mr. Hodgson suggests the propriety of regarding the Chiru as representing “a new subgenus to be termed Pantholops, the vulgar old name for the Unicorn.” Naturalists have generally acquiesced in Hodgson’s suggestion on this point, and we follow the usual practice in denominating the present species Pantholops hodgsoni.

Other names, however, have been proposed. In 1827 Lesson, in his ‘Manuel de Mammalogie,’ called this Antelope Antilope chiru, quoting as his reference an article in the ‘Quarterly Oriental Magazine’ for 1824 (p. 260), which is, however, merely another version of Abel’s paper.

About the same date also Hamilton Smith, in one of the volumes of Griffith’s edition of Cuvier’s ‘Animal Kingdom,’ proposed, with a note of interrogation, to give the name Antilope kemas to the Chiru, quoting its description from one of the above-mentioned reports of Abel’s original paper.

We are quite satisfied, however, that it is best to employ the specific name hodgsoni for this species as that which was first applied to it.

Since the days when Hodgson was Resident in Nepal many British travellers and sportsmen have penetrated into the snowy ranges of the Himalaya, and have met with the Tibetan Antelope. Sir Joseph Hooker, in the second volume of his ‘Himalayan Journal,’ tells us that he saw Chirus on the Cholamoo lakes near the Donkia Pass in Sikim in October 1849. They were feeding in company with “Gaurs” (Gazella picticaudata) upon the short grass about the lake, which lies at an elevation of some 17,000 feet above the sea-level. Sir Joseph Hooker gives an excellent figure of the remarkable horns of this Antelope, which by his kindness we are enabled to reproduce, and alludes to the ideas of Hodgson (which were shared in by Hue and Gabet) of the profile view of these horns having given rise to the belief of the existence of a Unicorn in Tibet. We should mention that Blanford when he visited Sikim in 1871 was told by the Tibetans that the Chiru is not now found within a long distance of the frontier, but only beyond it in Tibet proper. He admits, however, that it is not probable that there could have been any mistake about so fine and conspicuous an animal.

Fig. 52.

Horns of Chiru.

(From Hooker’s ‘Himalayan Journal,’ vol. ii. p. 158.)

But by far the most complete account of the Chiru yet published is that given by General Kinloch in his excellent volume on the ‘Large Game of Tibet and Northern India,’ from the second edition of which, published in 1885, we venture to extract the following particulars:—

“So far as we know, Thibetan Antelopes are never found near the habitations of man, but frequent the plains and elevated valleys far above the limits of cultivation, where few human beings, save occasional wandering shepherds, ever disturb them. The most accessible country to sportsmen where the Thibetan Antelope is to be found is Chung Chenmo, a desolate valley to the north of the Pangong lakes. In this valley, and in those of the streams which flow down to it from the spurs of the Kárá Koram mountains, Antelope are usually plentiful; and they are also to be met with all over the lofty plateau which has to be crossed on the road to Yarkand. A few have been shot in the neighbourhood of the Mánsarovárá lake near the north-western frontier of Nepál, but there are great difficulties in the way of getting there, the Thibetans jealously excluding all foreigners.

“The Thibetan Antelope is considerably larger than the Indian Antelope, and somewhat more heavily made; its remarkable thick coat of closely set brittle hairs also tending to increase its apparent bulk. The color is a light fawn, varying in shade on different parts of the body, and tending almost to white in old buck. The legs are dark-colored, and the faces of very old males are nearly black. The muzzle is very curious; instead of being fine and compressed, as is the case with most deer and antelope, it is considerably enlarged and puffy-looking; so much so, that properly stuffed heads are generally supposed by persons unacquainted with the animal to be failures of the taxidermist.

“The horns are, perhaps, the most graceful of those of any antelope: set close together at the base, they diverge in an easy curve for about two-thirds of their length, and then converging more abruptly, approach each other, in some specimens, within three or four inches at the tips. Out of twenty-five that I have shot I have never seen a pair above twenty-four and a half inches, but considerably longer specimens are to be obtained, and I have recently heard of a pair twenty-eight and a half inches. The horns are jet-black, of very fine grain, with a small central core, and being deeply notched on their anterior surface, they form perfect knife-handles and sword-hilts. When seen in profile, the forward inclination of the horns has a curious effect, the two appearing like a single horn; which has given rise to the belief that the Thibetan Antelope is the Tchirou or Unicorn Antelope mentioned by the Abbé Hue.

“Although living in such remote and sequestered regions, the Thibetan Antelope is wary in its habits. In the mornings and evenings it frequents the grassy margins of glacial streams, which frequently flow between steep banks gradually scarped out by the floods of centuries and now remote from the ordinary water’s edge. The ravines have, for the most part, been cut through gently sloping valleys; and on ascending their steep sides, slightly undulating plains will be found to stretch away, until they merge in the easy slopes of the rounded hills which bound the valley. To these plains the Antelope betake themselves during the day, and there they excavate hollows deep enough to conceal their bodies, from which, themselves unperceived, they can detect any threatening danger at a great distance. In addition to the concealment afforded by their ‘shelter pits,’ they have an additional safeguard against surprise in the constant mirage which prevails on these stony wastes during the bright hours of the day. This mirage not only distorts all visible objects in an extraordinary manner, but, like rippling water, refracts the rays of light to such a degree as to render objects altogether invisible at very short distances. It is, of course, worst near the surface of the ground, but on very hot days it attains a level of several feet; and I well remember, on one occasion, observing the slender horns of an Antelope gliding past me within three hundred yards, apparently borne on the surface of a glassy stream, in which the wearer of the horns was submerged and completely hidden from view! When Antelope are feeding on the grassy flats by the streams is the time when they may be easily approached; and then a knowledge of the ground, and of the habits of the animal, renders success in stalking them tolerably certain.”

How far the Chiru extends into the high plateau of Northern Asia beyond the Himalayas it is yet a little uncertain. Dr. Blanford, in his account of the mammals collected by Stoliczka during the Second Yarkand Mission (where excellent coloured figures of both sexes of this Antelope are given), tells us that it has been found in the Kuen-lun range, but has not been met with further north-west or west. It is also, as we are told by the great Russian traveller and naturalist Przewalski, a characteristic animal of the highlands of Northern Tibet. The “Orongo,” as it is here called by the Monguls and Tanguts, was first met with by the great traveller after crossing the Burkhan Buddha range, beyond which it was found distributed to the south as far as the Tang-la mountains. In Mr. Delmar Morgan’s translation of Przewalski’s travels will be found the following passages relating to the habits of this animal, of which, in the original Russian edition of the work, both sexes are figured:—

“The Orongo is found in small herds from five to twenty or forty head, rarely collecting in large troops of several hundred, and this only where the pasturage is good and plentiful. Though a few of the old bucks, usually accompanying every herd, are more cautious and experienced, the Orongos generally are not so wary in their habits. In their flight the males follow the herd as though to prevent straggling; whilst with the Dzerens and Kara-sultas this order is reversed. When in motion, either leisurely or at full speed, the Orongo holds its horns erect, which adds greatly to its appearance. When trotting—its usual pace—the legs move so quickly that at a distance they are invisible, and dogs or wolves are soon left behind. We arrived in Tibet during the breeding-season of these animals, which begins late in November and lasts a month.

“At this time the full-grown males are in a most exited state, taking little food and soon losing the fat which they had gained during summer. The buck soon forms his harem of ten to twenty wives, and these he jealously guards lest any of them should fall into the power of a rival. No sooner does he see an adversary approaching than he, the lawful lord of the herd, rushes to the encounter with head lowered, uttering short deep bleats. The combat is fierce, and the long sharp horns inflict terrible wounds, often causing the death of both antagonists. Should one feel his strength ebbing, he takes to flight pursued by his enemy, then suddenly wheeling round receives the latter on his horns. As a proof of the fury with which they fight, I remember shooting one of the combatants, who, to my surprise, continued the fight for several minutes after he had received his death-wound, and then suddenly expired. If a doe chance to stray from the herd, the buck immediately gives chase, and, bleating as he goes, tries to drive her back again. While his attention is thus engaged the others give him the slip, and pursuing first one, then another, he often loses his whole harem. At last, deserted by all, he gives vent to his fury and disgust by striking the ground with his hoofs, curving his tail, lowering his horns, and bleating defiance at his compeers. From morning until evening these scenes are constantly occurring, and there appears to be no bond of union between the male antelope and his does; to-day they consort with one buck, to-morrow with another.

“The rutting-season over, the Orongos again live peaceably with one another, the males and females often collecting in separate herds. We saw a troop of about 300 does in February in the valley of the Shuga; the young are dropped in July. The Orongo is fearless and will let the hunter openly approach within 300 yards, or even nearer. The report of firearms or the whistle of a bullet does not alarm it; it only shows surprise by walking quietly away, frequently stopping to look at the hunter. Like other antelopes it is extremely tenacious of life and will run a long way although wounded. They are not difficult to shoot, for besides showing no fear, they haunt rocky defiles in the mountains, where they may be easily stalked. I have fired as many as from one to two hundred shots at them in the course of the day, my bag, of course, varying a good deal with my luck in the long shots. The Orongo is held sacred by the Mongols and Tangutans, and lamas will not touch the meat, which, by the way, is excellent, particularly in autumn when the animal is fat. The blood is said to possess medicinal virtues, and the horns are used in charlatanism: Mongols tell fortunes and predict future events by the rings on these, and they also serve to mark out the burial-places, or more commonly the circles within which the bodies of deceased lamas are exposed; these horns are carried away in large numbers by pilgrims returning from Tibet, and are sold at high prices. Mongols tell you that a whip-handle made from one will in the hands of the rider prevent his steed from tiring.”

It is almost unnecessary to say that living specimens of the Chiru have never, as yet, been brought to Europe.

The British Museum contains a mounted specimen of an adult male of the Chiru, obtained by Mr. Mandelli in Sikim and presented by Dr. W. T. Blanford; also some specimens presented by Hodgson, and a number of very fine skulls and horns from Ladakh and Kumaon from the Hume Collection.

Our illustration (Plate L.), which represents a male of this animal in a snowstorm, has been put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a coloured drawing prepared by Mr. Wolf under the directions of the late Sir Victor Brooke.

August, 1897.

Genus V. ANTIDORCAS.

General characters as in Gazella, but, as in Saiga tatarica alone of Ruminants, with only two lower premolars, and the upper anterior premolar reduced to half the size of the second. Back with a peculiar elongate evertible fold in the skin.

Skull with small but particularly deep anteorbital fossæ, no anteorbital vacuities, and very broad and open posterior nares.

Horns medium, lyrate, twisted inwards, with a double serpentine curvature, convex inwards and in front below, outwards and behind above. The points turned inwards or backwards.

Range of Genus. Africa south of the Zambesi.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LI

Wolf del J Smit lith

Hanhart imp

The Springbuck

ANTIDORCAS EUCHORE.

Published by R H Porter

81. THE SPRINGBUCK.
ANTIDORCAS EUCHORE (Zimm.).
[PLATE LI.]

La Gazelle à bourse sur le dos, Allamand, in Schneider’s ed. of Buffon’s Hist. Nat., Suppl. iv. p. 142, pl. lx. (1778); id. Buff. H. N., Suppl. vi. p. 180 (Paris, 1782).