Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/280

 fifteen or twenty head are seen together, but we never once saw more than this. The herd never mixes with the dzerens even if it graze on the same pastures, which seldom occurs.

It is much shyer than the dzeren, and owing to its excellent sight, hearing, and smell, easily escapes the snares of the hunter, being in common with other antelopes, very hard to kill, which increases the difficulty of the chase.

They feed in the evening and early morning, lying down, during the day under the lee of a hillock where they are sheltered from the wind. It is extremely difficult to mark one of these animals when reposing, on account of their colour so closely resembling that of the sand or the yellow clay. They are better discernible whilst grazing, or if they happen to be standing on the summit of a hill, where they will sometimes remain stationary for an hour at a time. This is the best and only opportunity the sportsman can have of stalking them.

If startled the kara-sulta bounds off for several hundred paces, then stops and looks at its pursuer for a few minutes, before resuming its flight. It is useless attempting to follow on its tracks; the animal will probably go a long distance and will be more cautious than ever.

My companion and I wasted a good deal of time and labour before we shot our first kara-sulta. The first and second days we were unsuccessful, and only on the morning of the third I succeeded in bagging a fine buck after a good stalk. One ought really