Big Game Shooting, volume 2 (of 2)

by Clive Phillipps-Wolley

Authority	Height at shoulder	Total length	Weight as shot	Length rear horns	Length front horns	Length of horns	Girth of horns	Span tip to tip	Remarks
Gazella Bennetti
	ins.	ins.	lbs.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.	ins.
Capt. Brooke	..	..	..	..	..	14¼	..	..	Both shot the same evening near Ferozepore
”	..	..	..	..	..	14	..	..
Major Ward	..	..	..	..	..	14	..	..	‘Sportsman’s Guide to Ladak, &c.’
Sir V. Brooke	..	..	..	..	..	13¾	4½	7	Rowland Ward, ‘Horn Measurements’
Major FitzHerbert	..	..	..	..	..	13½	..	..
Col. Kinloch	..	..	..	..	..	13¼	..	..	‘Large Game Shooting’
Major FitzHerbert	..	..	..	..	..	13	..	..
Sterndale’s ‘Mammalia’	26	42	..	..	..	12	..	..
‘Spherical,’ ‘Oriental Sporting Magazine,’ 1870	..	..	39½	..	..	..	..	..	Bucks
”	..	..	38	..	..	..	..	..
”	..	..	36	..	..	..	..	..
”	..	..	33	..	..	..	..	..
”	..	..	30	..	..	..	..	..	Does
”	..	..	28½	..	..	..	..	..
”	..	..	24	..	..	..	..	..
Average of good head	..	..	..	..	..	12	..	..
Tetraceros quadricornus
British Museum	..	..	..	4½	2⅜	..	..	..
Sir E. G. Loder, Bart.	..	..	..	4⅜	2½	..	..	..	Rowland Ward, ‘Horn Measurements’
Col. J. Evans (British Museum)	..	..	..	4	2½	..	..	..	”
Sir R. Harvey, Bart.	..	..	..	3⅝	1¾	..	..	..	”
H.R.H. Duke of Edinburgh	..	..	..	3½	2	..	..	..	”
Sir E. Durand, Bart.	..	..	..	3¼	1⅞	..	..	..
British Museum	..	..	..	3⅛	½	..	..	..	”
Sterndale’s ‘Mammalia’	24 to 26	40 to 42	..	about 5	about 1½	..	..	..
Average of good head	..	..	..	3	1½	..	..	..
Memmina indica
The Writer	11	21½	about 10	..	..	..	..	..	Other measurements of this buck for stuffing: Height at croup, 11¼; length of neck, 2¼; girth of neck, 7⁸⁄₁₀; girth behind shoulder, 13½; girth middle of body, 16⁷⁄₂₀; girth in front of stifle, 13½; forearm at elbow, 3⁶⁄₁₀; thigh close to body, 6⁴⁄₁₀ ins.
Jerdon	10 to 12	22 to 23	5 to 6	..	..	..	..	..
Professor Garrod, ‘Cassells’ Nat. Hist.’	8	18	..	..	..	..	..	..

The four-horn has the stilted action peculiar to deerlets, walking on the tips of its toes. Sterndale remarks that it is higher at the croup than the withers, and runs with its neck stuck out in a poky sort of way, making short leaps.

LI. THE MOUSE DEER (Meminna indica)

Native names: ‘Pisora,’ ‘Pisai’

Habitat, the large forests of India; but it is not known, according to Jerdon, in the countries eastward of the Bay of Bengal. It is common in the bamboo forests of the Central Provinces (Sterndale). The writer has never heard of it in Northern India, nor has he even seen it in Central India; in the Western Ghauts it is common enough.

In colour it is an olive dun, with lines of pale yellow spots along the sides; the lower parts are white; the ears small and rounded; the legs fine and delicate, being scarcely thicker than an ordinary pencil; the tail is short. The male has delicate little tushes pendant from the upper jaw, like the Barking deer; the scrotum is hairless, and instead of being between the legs is behind them, like the ordinary little Indian ground squirrel, which it very much resembles in colour and markings. It is commonly found in bamboo jungle, and the writer got a good specimen in the Western Ghauts. Sterndale writes of some tame mouse deer which he had: ‘They trip about most daintily on the tips of their toes, and look as if a puff of wind would blow them away. They are said to rut in June and July, and bring forth two young about the end of the rainy season.’

LII. KYANG (Equus hemionus)

Thibet ‘Kyang’