Part 19

Female. Similar, but without horns.

Hab. Northern and Eastern Mongolia, and southern borders of Russian Transbaikalia.

The great traveller and naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas, whose name we have already often mentioned in the course of this work, was the first technical describer of this Antelope, although he was by no means its discoverer, for he himself quotes previous references to it in the works of older authors. But Pallas, in the Supplement to his memoir on the Antelopes, published 1777, gave us the first scientific description of it, and selected for it the appropriate scientific name gutturosa, by which it has been ever since known. According to Pallas, the first Europeans to become acquainted with this Gazelle were the Jesuit missionaries in China, one of whom, Pereira, as quoted by Witsenius, mentions it as a Chinese animal; while Du Halde, in his great work upon China, describes it, under the name “Hoang-yang” or Capra flava, as wandering about in large flocks in the deserts of Mongolia. Further accounts of this Antelope were subsequently given by Messerschmidt and Gmelin in the Commentaries of the St. Petersburg Academy. These are also quoted by Pallas, who himself met with this animal on the upper course of the River Onon, on the southern frontiers of Transbaikalia. Pallas concludes his history of this species with a lengthened description of its external form and anatomy, and gives an uncoloured figure, in which the peculiar swollen condition of the throat in the male in the breeding-season (whence it was termed gutturosa) is correctly shown.

Pallas’s posthumous work, ‘Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica,’ contains little more than a summary of his previous account of this animal.

The numerous authors who followed Pallas added little or nothing to our knowledge of the Mongolian Gazelle, and were content to base their notices of it almost entirely upon his publications. It is not, in fact, until we come to nearly modern days that we obtain any further original information concerning this animal.

Dr. Gustav Radde, now Director of the Museum at Tiflis, made extensive journeys in South-eastern Siberia, under the patronage of the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia, in 1855 and the three following years, and amassed large zoological collections. One of the volumes of his ‘Reisen im Süden von Ost-Sibirien,’ published at St. Petersburg in 1862, is devoted to an account of the Mammals of South-eastern Siberia, and is, and will long remain, our standard work on this subject. Dr. Radde brought home five good specimens of this Antelope, and commences his account of it with accurate descriptions of its summer and winter pelages. He adds a detailed description of its skull and dentition, and compares them at length with those of Gazella subgutturosa.

As regards its distribution in the present epoch, Dr. Radde points out that, like the Dziggetai (Equus hemionus) and the Argali Sheep (Ovis ammon), the Mongolian Gazelle has retreated to the south and east from the Russian frontiers since the days of Pallas. There are at present only two places on the southern borderlands of Transbaikalia in which this Antelope remains during the summer and breeds every year. One of these is a district east of the Dsŭn-tarei which is seldom entered even by the shepherds of the Cossacks. It is an uninhabited and rather mountainous country, without wood or bushes, varied by salt-and some freshwater lakes, and covered only with yellow Elymus-grasses. The other district, which is of a similar character, lies north of the left bank of the Argunj, where this river enters into the Russian territories between the border-posts of Soktui and Abagaitui.

Dr. Radde gives the following account of the habits of this animal as observed by himself and as obtained from the reports of the natives in 1856:--

“About the middle of June the doe produces generally two young ones which remain quiet for three days, but after that are strong enough to follow the mother wherever she goes. If caught when young they quickly become tame. Shortly after my arrival at Zagan-olui in May 1856 I saw a fawn of this Antelope feeding with the sheep and goats without requiring any particular attention.

“In summer these Antelopes are seldom hunted because they are only occasionally to be found, but they are much pursued during the early winter. There are, however, but few good Antelope-hunters, especially amongst the Russians. Various methods are adopted to get within shot. So long as no snow has fallen the Antelopes usually proceed about midday in small flocks to the freshwater lakes, where they break the thin ice with their hoofs in order to drink. They select the same spot every day for this purpose, and there it is that the hunter makes his hiding-place. Driven on to the thin ice, the Antelopes often fall through and thus become an easy prey.

“The ordinary way of hunting these Antelopes requires two sportsmen, one of whom acts as driver for the other. One of the hunters, as soon as he sees the Antelopes at a distance of 4 or 5 versts, lies down flat behind a marmot’s hillock, or finds some other hiding-place amongst the grass, and holds his gun ready, whilst the other makes a long circuit and drives the Antelopes towards his companion. The flying Antelopes generally depart in a line; but the old males do not always keep in front, an old female sometimes occupying that position. Pursued by the driver, the frightened animals proceed sometimes at a walk, at other times in a hasty gallop, during which they occasionally utter a sharp clear cry. When they come within range the driver imitates the call of a raven or the howl of a wolf to awake the attention of the animals and to allow the shooter to choose out his victim more readily. The Tunguts of the Steppes are especially skilled in finding and pursuing the Antelopes, and even the young maidens of these tribes take part in the chase. At one of the border-posts there was a celebrated hunter who in many winters had obtained as many as 200 of these Antelopes, which at this season go about in large herds. They are occasionally so crowded together, as this hunter assured me, that he had sometimes killed three and even four individuals with one bullet.

“In what large numbers this Antelope sometimes assembles I was able to convince myself in October 1856, when I was on the other side of the Argunj in Mongolian territory, for their tracks and their droppings were so numerous that it appeared as if some thousands of sheep had gone by.

“The winter pelts of this Antelope make very warm and durable coats (locally called dachas), which are worn with the hair outside: the hair is not so brittle as that of the Roe. They are valued at about one and a half roubles apiece. The flesh of this Antelope is very palatable and the old bucks in the autumn become extraordinarily fat.”

Skull and horns of the Mongolian Gazelle.

(P. Z. S. 1867, p. 245.)]

In 1867 Dr. Lockhart brought home with him from Pekin two skulls of this Antelope and presented them to the British Museum. Dr. Gray read some notes on them at a meeting of the Zoological Society of London in February of that year. These notes were subsequently published in the ‘Proceedings,’ accompanied by an outline figure of one of the heads, which, by the kind favour of the Society, we are enabled to reproduce. Dr. Lockhart gave to Dr. Gray the following information as to this Antelope:--

“The animal to which they belong is called Hwang-Yang, the Yellow or Imperial Sheep. It is brought into Peking from Mongolia in large numbers in a frozen state, and sold for food. The flesh is much esteemed for its fine flavour and tenderness, and is eagerly purchased both by natives and foreigners.

“The European gentlemen in Peking used to go into Mongolia on shooting-expeditions for the purpose of hunting the Hwang-Yang. The animal, however, is very wary and generally keeps a long way out of range, so that the hunters are not very successful. It is considered a great feat to kill one of them.”

Besides an adult stuffed specimen of this species in the British Museum, stated, but probably erroneously, to have come from the Kirghiz Steppes, there are several skins and skulls in the collection obtained by the late Consul R. Swinhoe at Pekin, besides the two heads and horns already spoken of as brought home by Dr. Lockhart.

Our illustration (Plate LIV.), which represents both sexes of this Antelope, was put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a sketch drawn by Mr. Wolf for the late Sir Victor Brooke. We have no record of what were the exact specimens figured.

January, 1898.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LV.

J. Smit del. et lith. Hanhart imp.

The Persian Gazelle.

GAZELLA SUBGUTTUROSA.

Published by R. H. Porter.]

85. THE PERSIAN GAZELLE.

GAZELLA SUBGUTTUROSA (GÜLD.).