GAZELLE, Antilopq Dorcas or Gazella Dorcas, a species of antelope, about the size of a roebuck, but of lighter and more graceful form, with longer and more slender limbs, in these fespects.exhibiting the typical characters of the antelopes in their highest per fection. It is of a light tawny color, the under parts white; a broad brown band along each flank; the hair short and smooth. The face is reddish fawn-color, with white and dark stripes. The horns of the old males are 9 or 10 in. long, bending outward and then inward, like tile sides of a lyre, also.backward ttt the base, and forward at the tips, tapering to a point, surrounded by thirteen or fourteen permanent rings, the rings near the base being closest together and most perfect. The horns of •the female are smaller and obscurely ringed. The ears are long, narrow, and pointed; the eyes very large, soft, and black; there is a tuft of hair on each knee; the tail is short, with black hairs on its upper surface only, and at its tip. The gazelle is a native of the n. of Africa, and of Syria, Arabia, amb-Persia. Great herds of gazelles frequent the northern borders of the Sahara; and notwithstanding their great powers of flight, and the resistance which they are capable of making when compelled to stand at bay—the herd closing together with the females and young in the center, and the males presenting their horns all around—Pons and panthers destroy them in great numbers. The speed of the gazelle is such that it cannot be successfully hunted by any kind of dog, but in some parts of the east it is taken by the assistance of falcons, of a small species, which fasten on its head, and by the flapping of their wings blind and confuse ir, so that it soon falls a prey to the hunter. It is also captured in.inclosures made near its drinking-places. Although
naturally very wild and timid, it is easily domesticated, and, when taken young, becomes extremely familiar. Tame gazelles are very common in the Asiatic countries of which the species is a native; and the poetry of these countries abounds in allusions both to the beauty and the gentleness of the gazelle. It has been supposed that the gazelles of Asia may be of different species from the African, but there is reason to think that they are the same. The ariel gazelle (A. Arabica) perhaps differs rather as a variety than as a species, and is even more symmetrical and graceful than the common kind. There are several species very nearly allied to the gazelle, among which is antilope (or gazelle) Sommeringii,•a native of Abyssinia, with the curvatures of the horns very marked and sudden.—Some confusion has arisen among naturalists as to the application of the name gazelle, originally Arabic; and it has not only haen given to the leueoryx of the ancients, a very different species, but even to the of South Africa. The true gazelle was known to the ancients, and is accurately described by 2Elian under the name dorms, which was also given to the roe.