“The favourite haunts of this Gazelle are extensive wastes of sandy or rocky ground, sprinkled with low bushes, and interspersed here and there with patches of cultivation. Thick jungles they avoid; and they are seldom to be met with in districts which are entirely under crop. During the daytime they resort to secluded spots where they are not subject to annoyance, and in the mornings and evenings they frequently repair to fields of young grain, sometimes in close proximity to villages.
“In some places they are extremely wild, and can only be approached by the most careful stalking; in other localities they are comparatively tame, and will allow the sportsman to walk openly to within easy range. At most times, however, they are restless little animals, continually on the move, and they have a provoking way of trotting off with a switch of their black tails the moment that they suspect danger.
“On open plains the best way of getting within shot of them is under cover of a steady shooting horse. As they afford but a small mark, and seldom remain still very long, quick as well as accurate shooting is required, and beginners in the art of rifle shooting will find them excellent practice.
“The officers of the Guides used to hawk the Gazelle in the neighbourhood of Hótó Mardán, the Falcons used for the purpose being nestling ‘charghs’ (Falco sacer). Adult caught birds cannot be trained for this sport, and the nestlings had to be obtained from the distant province of Balkh by the assistance of some of the Kábúl Sirdárs. In the present state of our relations with Áfghánístán, the Falcons cannot be procured, and the sport has, for the present at any rate, died out. The hawks alone could not kill a Gazelle, but were assisted by greyhounds, which used to pull it down after the hawks had confused and stunned it by repeated blows. I regret that I never had an opportunity of witnessing the flight, which has been described to me as very interesting and exciting.”
Dr. Blanford tells us that this Gazelle lives on grass and on the leaves of bushes, and, so far as he is aware, never drinks. “I have seen it,” he says, “in the deserts of Sind in places where the only water for twenty miles round was procured from wells; and in spots in Western and Central India where, in the hot weather, the only water to be obtained was in small pools remaining in the beds of streams. But around these pools, in which the tracks of almost every animal in the forest was to be seen, I never yet saw the very peculiarly formed tracks of the Gazelle, although it frequently abounded in the neighbourhood. The four-horned Antelope, on the other hand, drinks habitually.”
Gazella christii, which we have alluded to above as synonymous with this species, was a MS. name of the late Dr. Gray, which appears to have been first published by Blyth in 1842, and applied to a pale form of the present animal from Kutch and Sind. But more recent researches have shown that it is not properly separable from the typical Gazella bennetti.
Gazella fuscifrons, another synonym also mentioned above, was based by Dr. Blanford in 1873 on a doe with distinctly ringed horns and with portions of the face dark brown, obtained in Baluchistan. But the late Sir O. B. St. John subsequently procured what he justly concluded to be the male of this form, which, as acknowledged by Dr. Blanford himself, proved to be not distinct from Gazella bennetti. By the kindness of the Zoological Society we are enabled to reproduce Dr. Blanford’s figures of the head of Gazella fuscifrons, which, except for the slight differences above mentioned, give an equally good idea of the head of the typical G. bennetti.
Fig. 61.
Head of Gazella fuscifrons, ♀.