GAZELLE, a small antelope of the genus Gazella, or some related genus, exemplified by the %rid° or of the Saharan and Syrian deserts, famous in poetic literature. The group contains some 25 species scattered throughout all Africa and southern Asia; and as a whole is characterized by small or mod erate size, a sheep-like dentition, sandy colora tion with white belly, and the usual presence of dark and light stripes on the face and flanks. The horns are of fair length, ringed, lyrate and usually present in both sexes. The gazelle (G. dorcas), stands about 24 inches tall at the shoulders, and has horns about 13 inches long. It is of delicate build, and extreme swiftness, leaping high as it runs, so that at full speed it seems to skim the ground like a flying bird. Its color is a light fawn upon the back, deepening into dark-brown in a wide band which edges the flanks and separates the yellow-brown of the upper portions of the body from the pure white of the abdomen. The face is marked with two stripes of contrasting colors, and the ing comparison to that of a woman. Gazelles is large, soft and lustrous, and has been long employed by Eastern poets as the most flatter ing comparison to that of a woman. Gazelles feed generally at dawn and at evening, and ap proach water only once in 24 hours. They are
hunted in various ways, and their flesh is ex cellent. This species is becoming rare, but may still be found throughout the Sahara, and in the stony deserts of Syria. Many local names have been applied to it in books of travel and reference, most of which belong elsewhere. Such are the or of Senegal (G. rufifrons); the West African gmohro (G. mohr), the largest (32 inches high) and tallest of the race; the (aoul* (G. scemmerringi) of Abyssinia and Somaliland, the (G. dama) of the Sudan, and others formerly con fused with G. dorcas. Still other species range the plains of Central and South Africa, where some, as the springbok (q.v.), formerly assem bled in vast herds, as described under ANTELOPE. Another group is formed by three similar Asiatic gazelles,— one common in Persia (G. gutturosa), and the others eastward, where the agog" dwells on the high Tibetan plateau. Lastly in the Indian gazelle (G. bennetti), the 'ravine-deer" of Indian sportsmen, we have a species with almost straight horns, which is about 26 inches tall, light chestnut in color with a blackish tail, and dwells in small bands in the dry plains along both sides of the Indus.