BOS GA.URUS. 225 



by Dr. J. Anderson, who had the original in his possession in Calcutta. 

 It was a superb specimen, and was intended for the Society's 

 Gardens, but unfortunately met with an accident, from the result of 

 which it died, when being shipped for England. The shorter legs, 

 large dewlap, shorter head, and differently formed horns are shown 

 iu the photograph (see fig. 2) . 



I cannot concur in the view taken by Hodgson, Gray, Blyth, and 

 Horsfield that there is a difference amounting to generic distinction 

 between this group of flat-homed bovines and typical Bos, e. g., B. 

 ta urns and B. indicus : indeed I feel grave doubts as to the generic 

 distinction of the Bisons and Buffaloes from the taurine cattle. 

 Bos soudaicus is in some respects intermediate between Bos gaurus 

 aud the typical forms, whilst the distinctions between Bos caffer and 

 Bos bubalus, or between Bos bonassus and Bos grunniens, appear very 

 similar in kind to those between Bos taunts, Bos bonassus, and Bos 

 ba.balns, and not very different in degree. But if the genus Bos be 

 divided, the most natural sections appear to be the taurine, bisontine, 

 and bubaline ; and the members of the flat-horned section agree far 

 better, as has been, I think, shown by Lydekker in his discussion of 

 the fossil forms, with the taurine than with the bisontine subdivision, 

 although they were referred to the latter by Hamilton Smith and 

 others. 



Our present knowledge of the range of the three species of this 

 section of Bos may be thus summarized : — 



Bos gaurus. — The Gaur is found in all the larger forest-tracts of 

 the Indian Peninsula from the Ganges to Cape Comorin, but not in 

 Ceylon. Its extreme north-western range, at present, I believe, to be 

 in the neighbourhood of the river Nerbudda, east of Broach, and 

 west of long. 80 ° E. the valley of the Nerbudda forms approximately 

 its northern limit, though it may in places exist a little further north. 

 It does not inhabit the grass-jungles of the great Indus and Ganges 

 plain, except to the eastward in the neighbourhood of the Himalayas ; 

 fact this animal is seldom, if ever, found far away from hilly 

 ground. It occurs in the forests along the base of the Himalayas as 

 far west as Nepal, and is met with in the hill-regions south of Assam, 

 and thence in all suitable localities throughout Burma and the other 

 countries immediately east of the Bay of Bengal down to the 

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