Part 20

Antilope subgutturosa, =Güld.= Act. Ac. Sc. Imp. Petrop. 1778, pt. i. p. 251 (1780); =Schreb.= Säug. pl. cclxx. B (1785); =Gmel.= Linn. S. N. i. p. 186 (1788); =Kerr=, Linn. An. K. p. 311 (1792); =Donnd.= Zool. Beytr. i. p. 628 (1792); =Link=, Beytr. Nat. ii. p. 99 (1795); =Bechst.= Uebers. vierf. Thierr. ii. p. 645 (1800); =Shaw=, Gen. Zool. ii. pt. 2, p. 343 (1801); =Turt.= Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 113 (1802); =G. Cuv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. ii. p. 227 (1804); =Pall.= Zoogr. Ross.-As. i. p. 252 (1811); =Afzel.= N. Act. Ups. vii. p. 220 (1815); =Desm.= N. Dict. d’H. N. (2) ii. p. 185 (1816); =Goldf.= Schr. Säug. v. p. 1196 (1818); =Desm.= Mamm. ii. p. 454 (1822); =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 210, v. p. 331 (1827); =Less.= Man. Mamm. p. 373 (1827); =J. B. Fisch.= Syn. Mamm. p. 460 (1829); =Hohenacker=, Bull. Soc. Mosc. 1837, viii. p. 137 (Transcaucasia); =Ménétriés=, Cat. rais. Zool. Caucase, p. 24 (borders of Caspian Sea); =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 287 (1836); =Oken=, Allg. Naturg. vii. p. 1268 (1838); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat., Suppl. i. p. 261 (1840); =Démidoff=, Voy. Russ. Mérid. iii. p. 61 (1840) (Transcaucasia); =Eichwald=, Faun. Caspio-Caucas. p. 39 (1841); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1842); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Suppl. iv. p. 406 (1844), v. p. 404 (1855); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 402 (1845); =Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 114, pl. xxxiv. (1845); =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 269 (1847); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 265; Reprint, p. 85 (1848); =Gieb.= Säug. p. 307 (1853); =De Fil.= Viagg. in Persia, p. 344 (1865); =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 160 (1869).

Antilope (Gazella) subgutturosa, =Licht.= Mag. nat. Freund. vi. p. 171 (1814).

Cerophorus (Gazella) subgutturosa, =Blainv.= Bull. Soc. Philom. 1816, p. 75.

Gazella subgutturosa, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 160 (1843); =id.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846); =Hutt.= J. A. S. B. xv. p. 151 (1846) (Candahar); =Gray=, Knowsl. Men. p. 4 (1850); =id.= P. Z. S. 1850, p. 113; =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 58 (1852); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 193 (1853); =Blyth=, Cat. Mamm. Mus. As. Soc. p. 172 (1863); =Wolf=, Zool. Sketches, pl. xxii.; =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1869, p. 602; =Blanf.= Zool. Abyss, p. 261, pl. i. fig. 4 (horns) (1870); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 38 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 107 (1873); =Blanf.= P. Z. S. 1873, p. 313 (distribution); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 545; =Przewalski=, Mongolia (Russian ed.), pl. i. fig. 2 (1875); =id.= Morgan’s Engl. Transl. i. p. 207 (1876); =Blanf.= E. Persia, ii. p. 91 (1876); =Severtz.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xviii. p. 170 (1876); =Danf. & Alst.= P. Z. S. 1877, p. 276 (Tigris); =iid.= P. Z. S. 1880, p. 55; =Scl.= List An. Z. S. (8) p. 141 (1883), (9) p. 155 (1896); =Sterndale=, Mamm. Ind. p. 466 (1884); =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1886, p. 2; =Scully=, J. A. S. B. lvi. pt. 2, p. 76 (1887); =Jent.= Cat. Ost. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. P.-B. ix.) p. 136 (1887); =Thos.= Linn. Trans. (2) v. p. 64 (1889); =Büchn.= Mél. Biol. xiii. p. 160 (1890); =W. Scl.= Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 160 (1891); =Blanf.= Faun. Brit. Ind., Mamm. p. 528 (1891); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. P.-B. xi.) p. 168 (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 118 (1892), (2) p. 159 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 180 (1893); =Percy=, Badm. Big Game Shooting, ii. p. 342 (1894); =Satunin=, Zool. JB. Syst. ix. p. 310 (1896) (Transcaucasia).

“Antilope dorcas, var. persica, Rüpp.,” =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 160 (1843).

Gazella subgutturosa, var. yarkandensis, =Blanf.= J. A. S. B. xliv. pt. 2, p. 112; =id.= Yark. Miss., Mamm. p. 88, pl. xv. (1879).

Gazella hillieriana et G. mongolica, =Heude=, Mém. Hist. Nat. Chine, ii. p. 245, pls. xxxvi. & xxxvii. (1894).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Dshairan (Pallas), Ahu (Blanford) of Persians; Karakeuruk (= Black-tail) of Khirghiz Tartars (Pallas); Kik (or Sai-kik) and Tairan of Turkis of Yarkand (Blanford).

Size medium, height at withers about 26–27 inches. General colour dark sandy fawn. Face-markings indistinct, the central band visible in youth gradually interrupted and replaced by white as age advances. Dark facial streaks in front of eyes present, but little defined. An anteorbital gland present. Larynx swollen, forming a peculiar projection in front of the neck. Ears of medium length, pointed, their backs short-haired even in winter, pale fawn. Dark lateral band not, or scarcely, darker than the back, from which it is separated by an indistinct light lateral band. Pygal band present, not strongly marked. Tail 8 or 10 inches long, crested, black. Knee-brushes present, brown or black.

Skull stoutly built; nasals broad and short; anteorbital fossa well marked. Basal length 8 inches, greatest breadth 3·8, muzzle to orbit 4·6.

Horns of medium length, thick, evenly diverging from each other as they curve backwards; their tips decidedly, though not abruptly, bent inwards and slightly upwards.

Female similar to the male, but without horns, or occasionally with minute rudiments of them.

Hab. Western Asia from Asia Minor and Caucasia in the west to Turkestan, Yarkand, and Mongolia in the east.

The Persian Gazelle, as it is commonly called, is by no means restricted to Persia, but, as we shall presently show, has a wide range through the steppes of Central Asia from the borders of Asia Minor to Northern China. It was first made known to science by Anton Güldenstädt, an enterprising Russian traveller and naturalist of the last century, who met with it in 1772 in the course of his explorations of the countries adjacent to the Black and Caspian Seas. Güldenstädt wrote an elaborate description of it in 1878 in a memoir published two years later in the ‘Acta’ of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, and named it “subgutturosa,” “because its throat protruded slightly, but not so much as in Antilope gutturosa.” Pallas, who also observed this Antelope during his travels in Central Asia, included it under Güldenstädt’s name in his ‘Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica.’

After Güldenstädt and Pallas several other Russian naturalists--Hohenacker, Nordmann, and Eichwald--recorded this Gazelle as being met with on the plains of Transcaucasia. Ménétriés, in his memoir on the Zoology of the Caucasus published in 1832, tells us that at that period it was very common, especially in winter, on the vast steppes bordering the Caspian between Baku and Kur, whence, as Herr Büchner has kindly informed us, it extends up the valley of the Kur nearly to Tiflis. Satunin, our most recent authority on the Mammals of this district, states that he found it throughout the steppes of Eastern Transcaucasia, and especially numerous on the Mugan Steppe. Whether this is the Gazelle found on the upper plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, as reported by Danford from hearsay, seems to be uncertain, though it probably penetrates into the highlands of Asiatic Turkey adjacent to Mount Ararat, and is certainly found in the valley of the Araxes.

In Persia, Dr. Blanford tells us, in his volume on the zoology of that country, G. subgutturosa is the Gazelle of the highlands, and is found in almost all the valleys and plains from about 3000 to about 7000 feet above the sea-level, ranging higher in winter and lower in summer, but keeping generally within the limits mentioned. It is unknown in the plains of Mesopotamia, and on the lower ground along the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

Dr. Blanford adds the following notes from the pen of the late Sir Oliver St. John, who was very well acquainted with Persia and its animals:--

“This is the common Gazelle of Persia, and is found everywhere away from the forests of the Caspian and the shores of the Persian Gulf, in which last locality it is replaced by another species (probably G. bennetti). Like the Wild Ass, it especially affects the neighbourhood of the salt deserts. It appears to retire generally to the valleys at the base of hills to breed, and is most commonly seen in small parties of three to half-a-dozen. I do not remember ever having seen twenty together. The fleetest greyhounds cannot come up with the Gazelle when it gets a fair start, but when suddenly roused from a hollow, or when the ground is heavy after rain, good dogs will often pull down males.”

Dr. Blanford has included this Gazelle in the ‘Fauna of British India,’ because, as ascertained by the late Sir Oliver St. John, it occurs in Pishin north of Quetta, now in British territory, though it is not met with in any other part of the Indian Empire.

Throughout the sandy plains along the northern boundary of Afghanistan this Gazelle is abundant. Dr. J. E. T. Aitchison, who accompanied the Commission for the delimitation of the Afghan boundary in 1884, tells us that it was occasionally seen along the whole route from Quetta to Khusan. In the low hills and great gravel plains of the valley of the Hari-rud they were observed everywhere, but were very wary and difficult of approach. In June 1885, at Chinkilok, to the north-west of Herat, between that city and the range of the Parapomisus, Dr. Aitchison caught a young female Gazelle of this species about a day old, and subsequently, on his way home through Persia, obtained three others of about the same age. These four Gazelles, as we have been told, were carried many hundred miles through Persia in large covered baskets on each side of two camels, and were commonly believed by the natives to be Dr. Aitchison’s four wives, the baskets being of the same fashion as those generally used in that country for the conveyance of women! Dr. Aitchison brought his four pets safely home to the Zoological Society’s Gardens, where they throve well and bred in 1887, 1888, and in several succeeding years. Two of the males of this family, born in the Society’s Menagerie in 1892 and 1894, are still living there.

According to Herr Büchner, who has kindly supplied us with some valuable notes on the Asiatic Gazelles, this species is found in suitable localities all over the Transcaspian Provinces of Russia, and ranges northwards to the steppes between the Caspian and the Aral, and eastwards to Lake Balkash. Far beyond this it extends across the southern portions of the great Desert of Gobi into the Chinese Provinces of Zaidam, Alaschan, and Ordos.

On crossing the high range north of the Hindu Koosh into Eastern Turkestan a Gazelle very similar to the Persian Gazelle is met with. Six examples of this form were obtained by the naturalists of the Second Yarkand Mission in 1873–74, and were described by Dr. Blanford in his memoir on the Mammals of that Mission. Dr. Blanford says that it is perhaps a question whether the Eastern Turkestan Gazelle should not be raised to the rank of a species. It differs principally from the typical form in the very much darker markings on the face and in the much smaller degree to which the horns diverge. The size appears rather larger than that of the typical Persian form. But as there are some variations in the face-markings of Persian specimens, Dr. Blanford has considered it better to regard the Yarkand race as only a variety, which he has proposed to call Gazella subgutturosa yarkandensis. Of this subspecies an excellent coloured figure, drawn by Smit, is given in the above-named work. It represents both sexes, and shows the black markings on the face very distinctly.

As pointed out by Dr. Blanford, it is nearly certain that the Gazelle to which Shaw refers, in his volume on ‘High Tartary, Yarkand, and Kashgar’ (page 221), as having been brought to him at Yarkand, and of which he says the Yarkand name is “saikeek,” was of the present species--that is, of the local form Gazella subgutturosa yarkandensis.

We have already mentioned the four living examples of this Gazelle brought to London by Dr. Aitchison and presented to the Zoological Society’s Collection. These, however, were not the first specimens of this animal brought to England alive. As long ago as 1852 females of the present species were obtained from Bussorah on the Persian Gulf and presented to the Society by Alderman Finnis, and in 1869 examples from the same country were given to the collection by the late Mr. T. K. Lynch, F.Z.S. Other specimens, mostly from the same country, were received in subsequent years. The examples of this animal just spoken of as being the first to arrive in England formed the subjects of a beautiful drawing by Mr. Wolf, a coloured lithograph taken from which has been published in the first volume of Wolf and Sclater’s ‘Zoological Sketches’ (plate xxii.).

Our figures of this species for the present work (Plate LV.) have been prepared by Mr. Smit from the descendants of the animals brought by Dr. Aitchison from Northern Persia, now living in the Society’s Gardens.

The series of specimens of this species in the British Museum comprises a skull from near Ispahan in Persia, presented by Dr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S.; a head-skin and some horns from Gulran and Galicha, on the Afghan frontier, collected by Dr. Aitchison during the Afghan Boundary Commission; and some skins and skulls from the Saiar Mountains, Altai, presented by Mr. St. George Littledale. There are likewise a skin from the River Aksu, in Chinese Turkestan, presented by Major C. S. Cumberland, and several fine skulls and pairs of horns from the plains of Yarkand, obtained by the late Mr. Dalgleish, and presented to the Museum by Mr. A. C. Hume, C.B. All these last-named specimens represent the Yarkand subspecies, Gazella subgutturosa yarkandensis.

January, 1898.

THE BOOK OF ANTELOPES, PL. LVI.