The Nyl-ghau claims to be mentioned first, as it is one of the largest antelopes known. It inhabits the dense forests of India, and is a creature of interesting and singular habits. The Goral and Serow are also two large species inhabiting the Himalayas--especially in the kingdom of Nepaul--while the Chousinga is a denizen of the wooded plains of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. Two others, Chousingas, are the Rusty red and Full horned, both natives of India; and the Jungliburka, a species found in the Bombay Presidency. In Persia we find the well-known Sasin, or common antelope, as it is usually called; and in the Oriental Islands, Sumatra furnishes us with the Cambing outan, and Japan with the Japanese goat antelope. The Mahrattas have the Chikara, or Ravine-deer, a species peculiar to the rocky hills of the Deccan. China is not without its representative in the Whang-yang, or yellow-goat, which also inhabits the arid deserts of Central Asia, Thibet, and Southern Siberia. The Goa is another Thibetian species; and this ends our list of the tribe: for the two European antelopes, the Chamois and Saiga, and the one peculiar to the prairies of North America--the Prong-horn--have already received mention. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. DEER. Of these graceful quadrupeds there are nearly fifty species known to the scientific naturalist. These are geographically distributed throughout the continents of Europe, Asia, and America; and several belong to the great Indian islands. In Africa we find only two kinds, and these confined to the mountain regions near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Throughout the central and southern parts of that vast continent no native deer exist; but their place is plentifully supplied by their very near kindred the antelopes--for which, as already seen, Africa is especially famous. It will be evident to my young readers, that anything like a detailed description of fifty different kinds of animals would take up a volume of itself. I must therefore content myself with giving a brief account of the more remarkable species, and a word or two only about those less noted. If size entitle a species to precedence, then decidedly the _Elk_ should stand first. He is the largest of the deer tribe--not unfrequently standing as high as a horse, and carrying upon his crown a pair of broad, flat-branched antlers, weighing sixty pounds! Although truly an animal of the deer kind, he lacks those graceful shapes and proportions that characterise most of his congeners; and his mode of progression--a sort of shambling trot--is awkward in the extreme. While the animal is in the act of running, its long split hoofs strike together, giving out a series of singular sounds that resemble the crackling of castanets. In the elk countries of North America the native Indians prize the skins--dressing them into a soft pliable leather. The flesh is also eaten; but it is inferior to the venison of either the fallow or red deer.