The horns of GRANT’S GAZELLE are larger than in any other of the species.
The SPRING-BOK derives its name from the habit it has of leaping straight up in the air for several feet when alarmed or whilst running. Its height is two feet and a half. The horns are lyrate, being very small in the females. Its colour is yellow dun, with the under parts, as usual, white. A peculiar white line along the middle of the back can be varied in extent within certain limits by the animal at pleasure. Major C. Hamilton Smith, when writing of this species, tells us that it assembles in South Africa in vast herds, “migrating from north to south and back with the monsoons. These migrations, which are said to take place in the most numerous form only at the interval of several years, appear to come from the north-east, and in masses of many thousands, devouring, like locusts, every green herb. The Lion has been seen to migrate and walk in the midst of the compressed phalanx, with only as much room between him and his victims as the fears of those immediately around could procure by pressing outwards. The foremost of these vast columns are fat, and the rear exceedingly lean while the direction continues one way; but with the change of the monsoon, when they return towards the north, the rear become the leaders, fattening in their turn.”
The SAÏGA[6] and CHIRU[7] differ from the Gazelles but slightly, and approach the Sheep; the former belonging to Eastern Europe and Western Asia, the latter to Tibet.
The Saïga is as large as a Fallow Deer, tawny yellow in summer, light grey in winter; being specially peculiar about the nose which is much lengthened, at the same time that the nostrils are expanded to such a degree that in feeding they have to walk backwards. The horns, found only in the males, are not a foot long, slightly lyrate, and annulated. In its native haunts—which are barren, sandy, and salt—it assembles frequently in vast herds. It runs rapidly when pursued, but is soon exhausted.
INDIAN ANTELOPE.
The CHIRU is slightly smaller, of a reddish fawn colour, with the face and front of the limbs black. The slender jet-black horns, very small in the female, are ringed nearly to the tips, curved forward, and about two feet long. From Captain Kinloch’s account we learn that “in the early part of the summer the Antelope appears to keep on the higher and more exposed plains and slopes where snow does not lie; as the season becomes warmer, the snow which has accumulated on the grassy banks of the streams in the sheltered valleys begins to dissolve, and the Antelope then comes down to feed on the grass which grows abundantly in such places, and then is the time that they may most easily be stalked and shot. They usually feed only in the mornings and evenings, and in the day-time seek more open and elevated situations, frequently excavating deep holes in the stony plains in which they live, with only their heads and horns visible above the surface of the ground.”
THE PALLAH.[8]
THE PALLAH, OR IMPALLA, of South and South-east Africa, is another closely-allied form of large size, being more than three feet high at the shoulder. Its colour is dark red above, yellow dun on the sides, and white below. There are no false hoofs in the usual situation on the lengthy legs: a peculiarity which it shares with the Cabrit and the Giraffe. The eyes are very large and liquid. The horns, wanting in the female, are twenty inches long in the male, and lyrate; they are ringed nearly to their tips. They are abundant on or near to hills, and collect in herds of from twenty to thirty. Mr. Drummond, vividly describing his South African experience, on an occasion whilst hunting Buffalo, “saw something red moving among the trees, and stopped to watch it. It turned out to be a troop of Impalla coming back from water and making for some of the grassy glades. There might have been seventy or eighty of them, picking their way along in Indian file, nibbling here and there, but always moving, and seeming like a troop of ghosts in the dim twilight and silence.”