Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/226

204. According to the same authority the ewes drop their young in June, and the horns of old rams curve so much downwards and forwards as to prevent them from feeding, and thus sometimes cause their death by starvation. I will not vouch for the truth of this statement, and can only say that in Northern Tibet I rarely saw one of their skulls.

Another characteristic animal of the Tibetan highlands is the antelope, called by the Mongols and Tangutans orongo (Antilope Hodgsoni). The male is remarkably handsome; in size no bigger than a dzeren, with a beautifully shaped body set on long, slender legs, and with elegant black horns (twenty-three inches long) standing vertically above the head, slightly curved, and annulated on the anterior surface. In winter the hair on the upper part and sides of the muzzle, the sides of the breast, and fore parts of the legs are black, the neck, middle of the breast, stomach, and rump white, the back dun-coloured. When seen at a distance it appears white. The female is much smaller than the male, and has no horns or black marks on the body. We first saw the orongo after crossing the Burkhan Buddha range, beyond which it is distributed towards the south as far as the Tang-la mountains. It loves the valleys and rolling plains, and, after the yak, is the most numerous of the animals of Northern Tibet. Like the kulan and the yak it requires water, and