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Show 316 MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE [Mar. 18, is identical; and the horns only differ in being a little more curved backwards, and in the curve, as viewed from the front, being a little more lyrate. The differences, however, are insignificant. I have little doubt that I saw the same Gazelle (easily distinguishable even at a distance, by its colour, from G. subgutturosa) throughout the portion of Baluchistan which I traversed near the sea; and I think it highly probable that it is the same species which, as I am informed by Major St. John, is found along the whole north-east coast of the Persian Gulf to Bushire*. It appears most likely that the range of G. bennetti in this direction will be found nearly to correspond with that of Coracias indica and probably some other Indian forms, which appear to extend as far as the head of the Persian Gulf. Blyth, in his ' Catalogue of the Mammalia in the Museum of the Asiatic Society (Calcutta),' and Jerdon, in his ' Mammals of India,' refer under G. bennetti to a Gazella christii, Gray ; and Jerdon's remarks are so interesting that I extract them. He writes:- " Gazella christii, Gray, from Sindh and Cutch, is said to be paler in colour, and with the horns more slender and smaller than in the Indian Gazelle, and with the points abruptly bent inwards. This is joined by Blyth to G. bennetti. I have seen one or two heads of Gazelles, considered distinct from the Chikaraf, called 'the desert Antelope,' smaller and with the horns more bent forwards. I only looked on them at the time as a dwarf or stunted Chikara; but it is possible that there may be another species extending from Beloochistan across Sindh into the plains of Rajpootana, either Cr. subgutturosa or G. christii, if distinct from G. bennetti. Indeed Mr. Blyth, in a note p. 172 of his Catalogue (transposed with another on the opposite page), says, ** A n animal marked Gazella christii, Gray, in the London United-Service Museum, appeared to m e to be G. subgutturosa. It was labelled from Sindh, but might have been brought thither from beyond the passes.' " So far as I have been able to find, no animal was ever described by Dr. Gray as Gazella christii%. The name is mentioned as M S . in the Catalogue of the specimens of Mammalia in the British Museum, part. iii. Ungulata furcipeda, published in 1852, p. 63, as a synonym of G. bennetti. Whence Dr. Jerdon obtained his information as to the locality and characters of G. christii, I have not been able to learn; and Sir V. Brooke, who has an extensive knowledge of the subject, informs me that he has not met with the name elsewhere. * Major St. John assures me that the Bushire species is certainly not G. subgutturosa, that it is a redder Gazelle than that is, and that the female has horns. There are Gazelles on one at least of the Persian-Gulf islands; but they are said to have been introduced from the Arabian coast. f The Hindustani name for the Gazelle; more correctly Chinkara, but the n is nasal and often scarcely sounded. \ I at first thought this might have been a Sistan Antelope, named after Captain Christie, the first Englishman who traversed Sistan. But the name appears to have been given after Dr. Turnbull Christie, who presented specimens to the British Museum. |
