The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)Sclater, Philip Lutley
Science
The book of antelopes, vol. 3 (of 4)
Sclater, Philip Lutley
Antelopes
On crossing the high range north of the Hindu Koosh into Eastern
Turkestan a Gazelle very similar to the Persian Gazelle is met with.
Six examples of this form were obtained by the naturalists of the
Second Yarkand Mission in 1873–74, and were described by Dr. Blanford
in his memoir on the Mammals of that Mission. Dr. Blanford says that
it is perhaps a question whether the Eastern Turkestan Gazelle should
not be raised to the rank of a species. It differs principally from
the typical form in the very much darker markings on the face and in
the much smaller degree to which the horns diverge. The size appears
rather larger than that of the typical Persian form. But as there are
some variations in the face-markings of Persian specimens, Dr. Blanford
has considered it better to regard the Yarkand race as only a variety,
which he has proposed to call _Gazella subgutturosa yarkandensis_.
Of this subspecies an excellent coloured figure, drawn by Smit, is
given in the above-named work. It represents both sexes, and shows the
black markings on the face very distinctly.
As pointed out by Dr. Blanford, it is nearly certain that the Gazelle
to which Shaw refers, in his volume on ‘High Tartary, Yarkand, and
Kashgar’ (page 221), as having been brought to him at Yarkand, and
of which he says the Yarkand name is “_saikeek_,” was of the
present species--that is, of the local form _Gazella subgutturosa
yarkandensis_.
We have already mentioned the four living examples of this Gazelle
brought to London by Dr. Aitchison and presented to the Zoological
Society’s Collection. These, however, were not the first specimens of
this animal brought to England alive. As long ago as 1852 females of
the present species were obtained from Bussorah on the Persian Gulf
and presented to the Society by Alderman Finnis, and in 1869 examples
from the same country were given to the collection by the late Mr.
T. K. Lynch, F.Z.S. Other specimens, mostly from the same country,
were received in subsequent years[6]. The examples of this animal just
spoken of as being the first to arrive in England formed the subjects
of a beautiful drawing by Mr. Wolf, a coloured lithograph taken from
which has been published in the first volume of Wolf and Sclater’s
‘Zoological Sketches’ (plate xxii.).
Our figures of this species for the present work (Plate LV.) have been
prepared by Mr. Smit from the descendants of the animals brought by Dr.
Aitchison from Northern Persia, now living in the Society’s Gardens.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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