The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
_Female._ Similar to the male but without horns.
_Hab._ Plateau of Tibet and adjoining districts of Central
Asia.
Like many other Himalayan and Tibetan animals this Antelope first
became known to science from the researches of the great Indian
naturalist and antiquarian, Bryan Houghton Hodgson, British Resident at
the capital of Nepal. Hodgson described it in 1846, in the ‘Journal of
the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ as _Procapra picticaudata_, and
gave a very recognizable figure to accompany his letterpress. He wrote
of it as follows:--
“The exceedingly graceful little animal, which is the subject of
our present description, is called by the Tibetans Rágóá, or Góá
simply, and they allege that it is found generally throughout
the plains of middle and eastern Tibet. But those plains, it
must be remembered, are, for the most part, broken by deep
ravines or low bare hills, and it is in such situations, more
especially, that the Góá dwells, either solitarily or in pairs,
or at most in small families, never in large flocks. The species
is said to breed but once a year, and to produce ordinarily
but one young one at birth, rarely two; and it is added that
it browses rather than grazes, preferring aromatic shrubs and
shoots to grass, of which latter, indeed, its habitat is nearly
void. I have not heard that the Góá is ever tamed, but it is
killed for the sake of its flesh, which is esteemed excellent,
and is free from all caprine odour, even in the mature males.”
Hodgson also entered into the structural peculiarities of this
Antelope, which he described at full length. It is quite evident
that, as pointed out by him, the present Gazelle, as also the two
allied species (_G. przewalskii_ and _G. gutturosa_), present
certain points of difference from the rest of the group, and that
there was, therefore, some justification for Hodgson’s proposal of
the generic term “_Procapra_,” although we do not think it necessary
to use it. These three species agree among themselves in the females
not possessing horns, in the absence of anteorbital glands, and the
corresponding absence of a fossa in the skull, in having no brushes on
the knees, and in several other characters, which show that they are
really more closely connected to each other than to the more typical
Gazelles. Nevertheless we think that, on the whole, it is best to
include them in the genus _Gazella_, as no one of these characters is
absolutely confined to them. Thus _G. subgutturosa_, often, though
wrongly, placed with them, has no horns in the female, while in other
characters it is a true _Gazella_, and several species besides these
three are without knee-brushes, while the anteorbital fossæ in others
are so shallow as to be practically non-existent.
[Illustration: Fig. 54.
Skull and horns of the Tibetan Gazelle.
(P. Z. S. 1867, p. 245.)]
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