Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 2 (1876).djvu/231

Rh is extremely wary, specially in those districts where it has learnt to fear man; on the banks of the Murui-ussu it is a little less timid. Its swiftness is amazing; it bounds along like an india-rubber ball, and when startled seems absolutely to fly.

During their breeding season, which begins towards the close of December and lasts a month, the males chase one another from their herds, but we never saw them fighting like the orongo, nor did we ever hear them utter any sound other than a snort (like that of the kara-sulta) on seeing a man; and the does when startled give a short loud cry very similar to that of the young pygarg. They scrape themselves trenches a foot deep, in which they lie at night (and probably during the day), and in these we found heaps of their droppings.

This little antelope is more difficult to shoot than the orongo, besides being much scarcer and extremely tenacious of life. Its ashy-grey colour, exactly resembling the soil, renders it almost invisible at a distance, and it is only by its conspicuous white rump, and its snort, that you may discover its presence. By twilight it sees badly, and suffers the hunter to approach quite close. In conclusion, we may remark that both species are swift runners over smooth ice.

The only beasts of prey that we saw in Northern Tibet were wolves and steppe-foxes, both in great numbers.

The Tibetan wolf (Lupus Chanco) is about the size of the common wolf (from which it only differs