-

"I was out on the boundary between Khapa and Belgaon, and came across
a particularly fine old buck, with very wide-spreading horns; so
peculiar were they that I could have sworn to the head amongst a
thousand. He was too far for a safe shot when I first saw him, but
I could not resist the chance of a snap at him, and tried it, but
missed; and I left the place. My work led me again soon after to
Belgaon itself, and whilst I was in camp there I found my friend
again; but he was very wary; for three days I hunted him about, but
could not get a shot. At last I got my chance; it was on the morning
of the day I left Belgaon, I rode round by the boundary, when up jumped
my friend from a bed of rushes, and took off across country. I
followed him cautiously, and found him again with some does about
two miles off. A man was ploughing in the field close by; so, hailing
him, I got his bullocks and drove them carefully up past the does.
We splashed through a nullah, and waded through a lot of rushes, and
at last I found myself behind a clump of coarse grass, with a nullah
between me and the antelope. They jumped up on my approach, and Blacky,
seeing his enemy, made a speedy bolt of it; but I was within easy
range of him, and a bullet brought him down on his head with a complete
somersault. Now this buck, in spite of the previous shot at him, and
being hunted about from day to day, never left his ground, and used
to sleep every night in a field near my tent."

This antelope has been raised by the Hindoos amongst the
constellations harnessed to the chariot of the moon. Brahmins can
feed on its flesh under certain circumstances prescribed by the
'Institutes of Menu,' and it is sometimes tamed by Fakirs. It is
easily domesticated, but the bucks are always dangerous when their
horns are full grown, especially to children. The breeding season
begins in the spring, but fawns of all ages may be seen at any time
of the year. The flesh of this species is among the best of the wild
ruminants.

* * * * *

The next group of antelopes are those with smooth horns, without
knots; spiral in some African species, but short and straight, or
but slightly curved in the Indian ones. Females hornless. There are
but two genera in India, _Portax_ and _Tetraceros_.

_GENUS PORTAX--THE NYLGAO_.

Horns on back edge of frontal bone behind the orbit, short, recurved,
conical and smooth, angular at the base; bovine nose