BOS GAURUS. 



Bos gaurus itself is domesticated by some of the hill -tribes in the 

 Tipperah hills. If this were substantiated, it might account for the 

 descriptions by Mr. Macrae of the taming of the wild ' Grayals ' by the 

 Kukis, the Gayals in question being Bos gaurus. As I have already 

 stated* Mr. Macrae's story has a distinct appearance of truth. 



I think it highly probable that Mr. Sarbo is right in his opinion 

 that Bos frontalis does not exist wild south of Assam. It is true that 

 we know very little of the great hill- area south of Manipur between 

 the Kyendwen river and its tributaries to the east, and Tipperah, 

 Chittagong, Arrakan, etc., to the west. But it is scarcely probable 

 that three wild forms so nearly allied as Bos gaurus, Bos frontal) 

 and Bos sondaicus should be found living wild in the same area. 

 It is far from improbable that Bos sondaicus is the representative in 

 comparatively level country of the hill-loving Bos gaurus, and that 

 the two do not actually inhabit the same tract, but both Bos gaurus 

 and Bos frontalis are distinctly inhabitants of hill-forests and are 

 splendid climbers.* It is more probable that these two are repre- 

 sentative species inhabiting distinct areas. Bos frontalis may be 

 the wild ox of the Mishmi hills and of the mountains extending 

 eastwards from Assam. These hills have scarcely been penetrated 

 by any Europeans, and are extremely difficult of access. In some 

 MS. notes, for which I am indebted to Mr. Hume, he gives measure- 

 ments of the horns on a skull, which was sent to him as that of a 

 wild animal from the South Mishmi hills. The measurements are 

 those, I think, of Bos frontalis, the tips of the horns being 37 inches 

 apart. 



There is one more point on which a remark is necessary. The 

 animal described briefly by Mr. Davison, t as the ' Sapio ' of the 

 Malays may be Bos sondaicus. It is not impossible that the white of 



* To the powers of Bos gaurus in this respect I can speak from personal obser- 

 vation. I have seen them go at speed down slopes where I could only follow by 

 holding on to the bamboos and shrubs, and all observers have remarked on the 

 climbing propensities of -Bos frontalis. Bos sondaicus is, as Birth points out, a more 

 leggy animal than its two allies, and I think B. gaurus has proportionally longer legs 

 than B. frontalis. 



t P- Z. S., 1889, p. 448. It is worthy of notice that Cantor (J. A. S. B., xv., 

 p. 272) in his Catalogue of the Mammalia inhabiting the Malayan Peninsula and 

 islands, does not mention Bos sondaicus, and gives Saki utan (which means, I believe, 

 simple wild cattle) as the Malay name of Bos gaurus. 



