The hide is very thick, especially on the shoulders, and is much prized by the boatmen on all the rivers for making up into the inflated skins they use.
Sterndale remarks: ‘He sometimes even devours such quantities of the intensely acrid berries of the aoula (Phyllanthus emblica) that his flesh becomes saturated with the bitter elements of the fruit. This is most noticeable in soup, less so in a steak, which is at times not bad.’
The writer has never had the luck to taste any part of a blue bull that was worth eating except the tongue.
XLIX. INDIAN GAZELLE (Gazella Bennetti)
Commonly called Ravine Deer; native name generally ‘Chikara’
The gazelle is found in suitable localities pretty nearly all over India, with the exception of Lower Bengal, the Western Ghauts, and the Malabar coast. Wherever there is sandy ground, low stony hills, or the network of ravines which fringes the banks of so many Indian streams near their sources, or where they cut their way through low hills, ravine deer are likely to be found. They avoid heavy forest or swamp covered with high grass, nor do they usually frequent closely cultivated ground unless there is scrub, jungle, or a ravine near to which they can retire when disturbed.
They are fidgetty, restless little animals, and, like the Thibetan gazelles, are incessantly twitching their tails. Even where not much hunted they are generally pretty wild, but as they do not as a rule go far when disturbed, the sportsman can usually get a shot by perseveringly following up a herd. A steady shooting horse is of great assistance in stalking them, and on the edge of the Bikanir Desert, where they are very plentiful, the easiest way of approaching them is under cover of a riding camel. As black buck and ravine deer are often found on the same ground, the same tactics in the stalk are applicable to either. The stick-rest recommended for black buck shooting is of the greatest assistance when shooting ravine deer among bushes. The bucks are often seen alone, and herds rarely consist of more than a dozen animals. The does have thin horns, and occasionally, in bad light or jungle, pay the penalty of being mistaken for bucks.
Ravine deer shooting with a light rifle is very good fun. Straight shooting is necessary for so small a mark, and as a rule the day’s amusement can be varied by shots at black buck or small game. Colonel Howard, in 1883, got one ravine buck, one bustard, two peafowl, one sand-grouse, one duck, in a day, all shot with a rifle.
A ravine buck with a broken leg will give a good run to dogs if found in the open, but as a rule the ground these deer frequent is too broken for coursing.