Published by R H Porter
83. PRZEWALSKI’S GAZELLE.
GAZELLA PRZEWALSKII, Büchn.
[PLATE LIII.]
Antilope gutturosa, Przewalski, Mongolia (Russian ed.), p. 18, pl. i. fig. 1 (♂) (1875); id. op. cit. Morgan’s Engl. Transl. i. pp. 20 & 28 (1876).
Antilope cuvieri, Przewalski, Cat. Coll. (Russian) p. 110 (1888) (nec Ogilb.).
Gazella przewalskii, Büchn. Mélang. Biol. xiii. p. 164 (1890).
Vernacular Name:—Dzéren of Mongols (Przewalski)—applied to all the Gazelles of Central Asia.
Size rather greater than in G. picticaudata. General colour deep fawn in summer, pale finely grizzled fawn in winter. Sides of neck (at least in winter) and top of muzzle slaty brown; no ordinary gazelline face-markings. Ears short, acutely pointed[5]; coloured like the back. Rump with the white of the anal region running up on to the upper surface, divided in its centre by a narrow fawn-coloured line running from the back on to the tail. Tail very short, hidden in the fur; fawn along its top, inconspicuously pale brown at its tip. Front of limbs more or less brownish; no knee-tufts.
Skull short and stoutly built. No anteorbital fossæ. Nasals broad and short; premaxillæ not reaching up to the latter, the nasal opening unusually large and broad. Basal length of an adult male 7 inches, greatest breadth 3·8, muzzle to orbit 4.
Horns of median length and thickness, much compressed laterally; with the exception of their terminal two inches, they are evenly curved backwards and divergent outwards, the divergence increasing above; tips abruptly hooked inwards and slightly upwards, at a sharper angle with the rest of the horn than a right angle.
Female. Similar to the male, but without horns.