Part 27

Tragopsis bennettii, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 157 (1869).

Antilope arabica, =Elliot=, Madr. Journ. x. p. 223 (1839) (Mahratta Country).

Gazella christii, =Gray=, =Blyth=, J. A. S. B. xi. p. 452 (1842); =Hutton=, J. A. S. B. xv. p. 151 (1846).

Antilope hazenna, =I. Geoffr. St.-Hil.= Voy. Jacq., Mamm. p. 74, Atl. pl. vi. (1844); =Schinz=, Mon. Ant. pl. xxi. a (1848); =Wagn.= Schr. Säug. Supp. v. p. 406 (1855).

Gazella hazenna, =Temm.= Esq. Zool. Guin. p. 193 (1853).

Tragopsis hazenna, =Fitz.= SB. Wien, lix. p. 157 (1869).

Gazella fuscifrons, =Blanf.= P. Z. S. 1873, p. 317 (fig., head ♀) (Jalk, Persia); =Brooke=, P. Z. S. 1873, p. 545; =Blanf.= E. Persia, ii. p. 92 (1876); =Sterndale=, Mamm. Ind. p. 465 (1884); =W. Scl.= Cat. Mamm. Calc. Mus. ii. p. 160 (1891).

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Chinkára, Chikára, Kol-punch in Hindustani; Phaskela in N.W. Provinces; Ask or Ast and Ahu in Baluchistan; Khazm in Brahmi; Kalsipi in Mahratta; Tiska, Budári, or Mudári in Canarese; Sank-húlé in Mysore; Porsya ♂, Chari ♀ in Baori; Burudu-jinka in Telugu; Ravine-Deer of many Anglo-Indians.

Size medium; height at withers 24 to 25 inches. General colour dull fawn. Facial markings distinct, the darker ones rufous-fawn; a black spot on the top of the nose. Ears of medium length, fawn-coloured behind. Dark lateral and pygal bands brownish fawn, scarcely darker than the back; light lateral bands scarcely perceptible; knee-brushes present.

Skull with deep anteorbital fossæ:--Basal length 7·2 inches, greatest breadth 3·45, muzzle to orbit 4.

Horns thick, heavily ribbed, close together, diverging little but evenly, gently curved backwards below and forwards at their tips.

Female. Similar to the male, but horns straight, simple, about two-thirds the length of those of the male.

Hab. Indian Peninsula, extending westwards through Baluchistan to the Persian Gulf.

Like the Lion and the Cheetah this Gazelle belongs to an Ethiopian type of mammals, and was originally, no doubt, an intruder into India from the west. But, as will be seen when we come to describe its range, it has now spread itself over the greater part of the peninsula except on the eastern side. On the west the Indian Gazelle extends far along the Mekran coast to the Persian Gulf, and there meets the Arabian Gazelle, of which it is undoubtedly a very close ally, although the latter is always much darker on the back.

Although the Indian Gazelle, or “Ravine-Deer,” as it is usually termed by Europeans, was doubtless known to the sportsmen of British India long ago, it was not made known to science until 1831, when Col. Sykes, one of the earliest pioneers in Indian natural history, described it in a communication made to the Zoological Society of London. Sykes, in his paper on the Mammals of the Deccan read before the Society in July of that year, proposed to name it Antilope bennetti, after the late Edward Turner Bennett, a well-known naturalist, who was at that time Vice-Secretary of the Society. Sykes met with this Antelope on the rocky hills of the Deccan “in groups rarely exceeding three or four in number, and very frequently solitary.” In 1849, Fraser published a figure of this species in his ‘Zoologia Typica,’ taken from one of Sykes’s male specimens in the British Museum, which is still in the National Collection, although not in the exhibition gallery. In 1844, in his description of the mammals of Jacquemont’s ‘Voyage dans l’Inde,’ Isidore Geoffr. St. Hilaire described and figured an Antilope hazenna, which he at that time considered to be different from the present animal. But there can be no doubt that Jacquemont’s specimens, which were obtained at Malwa in Central India, are the same as Gazella bennetti, and Sykes’s term being the oldest has been universally employed as the designation of this species. As we shall presently show, Gazella christii of Gray, from Sind, and Gazella fuscifrons of Blanford, from Baluchistan, are names which have been based on what are merely slightly divergent forms of Gazella bennetti.

From the researches of Elliot, Jerdon, Blyth, Blanford, and other authorities on the mammals of British India, we are now well acquainted with the range of this Gazelle in the peninsula and adjoining lands to the west. Dr. Blanford describes it as extending throughout the plains and low hills of North-western and Central India, and thence through Baluchistan to the eastern shore of the Persian Gulf. In the Indian peninsula, he continues, the Indian Gazelle ranges in suitable localities throughout the Punjab, Sind, Rajputana, the N.W. Provinces, and the whole of the Bombay Presidency with the exception of the Western Ghats and Konkan; it also occurs in Central India as far east as Palamow and Western Sargiya, and in the Central Provinces as far east as Seoni and Chánda, together with the Hyderabad territories and the Madras Presidency to a little south of the Kistna, Gazelles being found at Anantapur, south of Kurnool, and in Northern Mysore.

For an account of the habits of the Indian Gazelle and the modes of its chase, we cannot do better than refer to the last edition of General Kinloch’s ‘Large Game Shooting,’ where they are described as follows:--

“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.

Head of Gazella fuscifrons, ♀.

(P. Z. S. 1873, p. 317.)]

The Indian Gazelle is frequently brought to Europe alive, though it is not so common in our menageries as Gazella dorcas, G. subgutturosa, and some other species. According to the Zoological Society’s books, the first examples were received in 1838, and since 1860, as will be seen by the printed lists, about twelve specimens have been exhibited. A pair presented by Capt. H. J. Hope Edwards, in April 1883, bred, and the female gave birth to a young one in November of that year; but, like other Gazelles, this species does not usually thrive in the dull climate of England.

As is the case with many common animals, the British Museum does not contain a good series of this Gazelle, and specimens with exact localities from all parts of its range are much required. Besides the old mounted examples from the Deccan presented by Col. Sykes and already alluded to, it possesses only a skin from Sind received from the Karachi Museum, and several skulls and pairs of horns from the Salt Range of the Punjâb and Kelat, received in the Hume Collection.