The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
“The rutting-season over, the Orongos again live peaceably with
one another, the males and females often collecting in separate
herds. We saw a troop of about 300 does in February in the
valley of the Shuga; the young are dropped in July. The Orongo
is fearless and will let the hunter openly approach within 300
yards, or even nearer. The report of firearms or the whistle of
a bullet does not alarm it; it only shows surprise by walking
quietly away, frequently stopping to look at the hunter. Like
other antelopes it is extremely tenacious of life and will run
a long way although wounded. They are not difficult to shoot,
for besides showing no fear, they haunt rocky defiles in the
mountains, where they may be easily stalked. I have fired as
many as from one to two hundred shots at them in the course of
the day, my bag, of course, varying a good deal with my luck in
the long shots. The Orongo is held sacred by the Mongols and
Tangutans, and lamas will not touch the meat, which, by the way,
is excellent, particularly in autumn when the animal is fat. The
blood is said to possess medicinal virtues, and the horns are
used in charlatanism: Mongols tell fortunes and predict future
events by the rings on these, and they also serve to mark out
the burial-places, or more commonly the circles within which the
bodies of deceased lamas are exposed; these horns are carried
away in large numbers by pilgrims returning from Tibet, and are
sold at high prices. Mongols tell you that a whip-handle made
from one will in the hands of the rider prevent his steed from
tiring.”
It is almost unnecessary to say that living specimens of the Chiru have
never, as yet, been brought to Europe.
The British Museum contains a mounted specimen of an adult male of
the Chiru, obtained by Mr. Mandelli in Sikim and presented by Dr. W.
T. Blanford; also some specimens presented by Hodgson, and a number
of very fine skulls and horns from Ladakh and Kumaon from the Hume
Collection.
Our illustration (Plate L.), which represents a male of this animal in
a snowstorm, has been put upon the stone by Mr. Smit from a coloured
drawing prepared by Mr. Wolf under the directions of the late Sir
Victor Brooke.
_August,_ 1897.
GENUS V. ANTIDORCAS.
Type.
_Antidorcas_, =Sund.= Pecora, K. Vet.-Ak. Handl.
1845, p. 271 (1847) A. EUCHORE.
General characters as in _Gazella_, but, as in _Saiga tatarica_ alone
of Ruminants, with only two lower premolars, and the upper anterior
premolar reduced to half the size of the second. Back with a peculiar
elongate evertible fold in the skin.
Skull with small but particularly deep anteorbital fossæ, no
anteorbital vacuities, and very broad and open posterior nares.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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