Part 26

Antilope dorcas, var. δ, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl. 1845, p. 268 (1847); =id.= Hornschuch’s Transl., Arch. Skand. Beitr. ii. p. 264; Reprint, p. 84 (1848).

Gazella vera, =Gray=, Knowsl. Men. pl. iii. (1850) (cf. =Scl.= P. Z. S. 1896, p. 984).

Gazella bennetti, =Yerb. & Thos.= P. Z. S. 1895, p. 555 (Aden).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Ghasal of Arabs, like G. dorcas; Ariel or Aiel in Syria (Ehrenberg).

Size medium; height at withers about 24 or 25 inches. General colour dark smoky fawn, much darker than in the allied species. Facial markings distinct; central facial band dark rufous-fawn, with a black spot on the nose. Ears of medium length, brownish-fawn behind. Dark lateral and pygal bands smoky brown; light lateral band very slightly lighter than the back. Limbs more rufous than body; knee-brushes brown or black.

Skull with short broad nasals; anteorbital fossæ shallow in the only good skull available. Basal length 6·75 inches, greatest breadth 3·3, muzzle to orbit 3·7.

Horns thick and rather short, almost straight and parallel to each other, a little curved backwards below, and forwards above.

Female. Similar to the male, but horns short and straight.

Hab. Western Arabia.

Although the Arabian Gazelle was described and figured as long ago as 1827, and specimens of it are by no means rare in captivity, we have as yet received little information about its exact range and its mode of life. But the great peninsula of Arabia still remains, we must recollect, one of the largest tracts on the earth’s surface that has been least explored by scientific travellers.

Hemprich and Ehrenberg, the discoverers of this Gazelle, met with it during their travels on the eastern coast of the Red Sea, and transmitted specimens of both sexes to the Berlin Museum. Here they were first described and figured by Lichtenstein in his ‘Darstellung der Säugethiere’--a work devoted to making known the riches of the Mammal-collection of the great Institution of which he was the Director.

Following Hemprich and Ehrenberg’s MS., Lichtenstein named the species “Antilope arabica,” and a short time afterwards it was again described and figured by Ehrenberg in his ‘Symbolæ Physicæ’ under the same designation.

Ehrenberg informs us that he and his fellow-traveller Hemprich obtained their first specimens of this Gazelle at Hamam el Faraun, on the coast of the Sinaitic Peninsula between Suez and Tor, and subsequently found it abundant on the island of Farsan on the Arabian coast of the Red Sea. They also observed Gazelles which they believed to be of the same species near Baalbec in Syria, but these, we think, are more likely to have been Gazella dorcas.

Succeeding authorities have added very little to our knowledge of this Gazelle. Canon Tristram, in his ‘Fauna and Flora’ of Palestine, mentions a Gazelle occurring in the “desert-country east of the Jordan” as being probably of this species; but we believe that he did not obtain any good specimens of it. Dr. Blanford, in his volume on the ‘Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia,’ has figured (for comparison) a head of this species obtained by Captain Heysham near Mocha, S.W. Arabia; and in the Zoological Society’s ‘Proceedings’ for 1874, the late Sir Victor Brooke gave a woodcut of the head of this Gazelle, which, by the kind permission of the Society, we are enabled to reproduce.

Head of Arabian Gazelle.

(P. Z. S. 1874, p. 141.)]

Living examples of the Arabian Gazelle are easily obtained at Aden and at Hodeidah, Jeddah, and other Arabian ports on the Red Sea, and are often brought to Europe. We have little doubt that the Gazelles in the Derby Menagerie figured by Waterhouse Hawkins in the third plate of the ‘Gleanings,’ and there called by Lord Derby’s MS. name, Gazella vera, were of this species, though in the text they are referred to as G. dorcas and in the list of plates as G. cuvieri. The Zoological Society of London appear to have received their first specimens in 1874, and since that date (as will be seen by their published Lists of Animals) have acquired many examples, chiefly by presentation. At the present time there are two fine males in the Society’s Gardens, both brought from Aden and presented--one by Mr. R. G. Buchanan and the other by Mr. J. Benett Stanford, F.Z.S. From the former of these Mr. Smit’s drawing (Plate LIX.) was taken.

The British Museum has lately acquired from the Zoological Society a good male example of this Gazelle, which was obtained at Aden and brought alive to London. It has been mounted for the Mammal Gallery. The Museum also has the skull from Mocha figured by Dr. Blanford, as already mentioned, and since presented by him to the collection, and the skin of a young animal from Gilead, obtained by Canon Tristram, the determination of which is, however, somewhat doubtful.

January, 1898.

J. Smit del. et lith. Hanhart imp.

The Indian Gazelle.

GAZELLA BENNETTI.

Published by R. H. Porter. ]

90. THE INDIAN GAZELLE.

GAZELLA BENNETTI (SYKES).

Antilope bennettii, =Sykes=, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 104; =Less.= Compl. Buff. x. p. 287 (1836); =Waterh.= Cat. Mamm. Mus. Z. S. (2) p. 40 (1838); =Laurill=. Dict. Univ. d’H. N. i. p. 617 (1839); =Gerv.= Dict. Sci. Nat. Supp. i. p. 261 (1840); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1842); =Schinz=, Syn. Mamm. ii. p. 400 (1845); =id.= Mon. Antil. pl. iii. b (1848); =Reichenb.= Säug. iii. p. 111 (1845); =Fraser=, Zool. Typica, pl. xvi. (1849); =Horsf.= Cat. Mamm. E. I. C. p. 166 (1851); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. v. p. 405 (1855).

Gazella bennettii, =Gray=, List Mamm. B. M. p. 161 (1843); =id.= Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846); =Hutton=, J. A. S. B. xv. p. 150 (1846) (Neemuch); =Gray=, List Ost. B. M. p. 56 (1847); id. Knowsl. Men. p. 4 (1850); =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 193 (1853); =Jerd.= Mamm. Ind. p. 280 (1867); =Blanf.= J. A. S. B. xxxvi. p. 196 (1867); =Kinloch=, Large Game Shooting, p. 57, pl. (1869); =McMaster=, Notes on Jerdon, pp. 141 & 249 (1870); =Blanf.= Zool. Abyss. p. 261, pl. i. fig. 2 (horns) (1870); =Stoliczka=, J. A. S. B. xli. p. 229 (1872); =Blanf.= P. Z. S. 1873, p. 315 (distribution); =Brooks=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 544; =Blanf.= E. Persia, ii. p. 91 (1876); =Ball=, P. A. S. B. 1877, p. 172; =Scl.= List Vert. An. Z. S. (8) p. 141 (1883), (9) p. 155 (1896); =Flow. & Gars.= Cat. Coll. Surg. ii. p. 264 (1884); =Sterndale=, Mamm. Ind. p. 463 (1884); =Murray=, Zool. Sind, p. 56 (1884); =Blanf.= Faun. Brit. Ind., Mamm. p. 526 (1891); =W. Scl.= Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 159 (1891); =Jent.= Cat. Mamm. Leyd. Mus. (Mus. Pays-Bas, xi.) p. 168 (1892); =Ward=, Horn Meas. (1) p. 124 (1892), (2) p. 166 (1896); =Lyd.= Horns and Hoofs, p. 175 (1893); =Percy=, Badm. Big Game Shooting, ii. p. 355 (1894).

Tragops bennettii, =Hodgs.= J. A. S. B. 1847, p. 11, & xvi. p. 695; =Gray=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 116; =id.= Cat. Ung. B. M. p. 62 (1852); =Adams=, P. Z. S. 1858, p. 522 (Punjab); Gerr. Cat. Bones Mamm. B. M. p. 233 (1862); =Blyth=, Cat. Mamm. Mus. As. Soc. p. 173 (1863); =Gray=, Cat. Rum. B. M. p. 39 (1872); =id.= Hand-l. Rum. B. M. p. 108 (1873).