244 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



more in a place only about three miles distant. The Kuki, who is quite 

 an old man, says he inherited the herd from his father, and never 

 either know himself or had heard of wild bulls serving the cows. This 

 same bull, as I have already pointed out, shews the high cylindrical 

 crest and deeply concave forehead said to be typical of tbe wild gaur 

 alone ; yet this bull, if any, was descended for generations from domestic 

 animals, both on the male and female sides. 



I have not dwelt upon the fact that the domestic form is so often found 

 with abnormal white patches ; once, indeed, there was a pure white bull 

 in the herd of the Kuki rajah mentioned above, because variation in 

 colour and deviation from that of the original stock is admittedly the 

 usual sign of domestication, still, as such abnormal colouring adds, if it 

 has any weight either way to the argument that the tame is derived from 

 the wild form, the fact that it does occur should not be passed over. 



I do not know where Col. Pollok shot his two wild animals which he 

 refers to as gayal, but I can find no trace whatsoever of anything 

 resembling a wild specimen of the tame from anywhere in Assam, 

 Manipur, Chittagong, Tipperah, or Northern Burma, or again in the 

 hills to the north-east of Assam and east of Thibet. All sportsmen, 

 who have seen the wild animals of any of these parts, assure me that it 

 is the gaur pure and simple, though many of my informants point 

 out that they have noticed variations of some slight degree in facial 

 angle, colour and shape of horns, &c, which, however, when one has 

 shot a good many, all prove to be individual and not specific. 



To sum up the alleged differences they come to this : 



The wild form known as Bos gaurus, the gaur of sportsmen, is : (1) 

 a big animal ranging up to 21 hands ; (2) has a large cylindrical crest ; 



(3) the forehead deeply concave ; (4) the nasals receding ; (5) the 

 horns incurved, and the greatest divergence not at the tip ; (6) no 

 dewlap ; and (7) constant colouration. 



The tame form known as Bos frontalis, the gayal, is on the other 

 hand : (1) much smaller, rarely if ever exceeding 17 hands ; (2) has 

 no cylindrical crest ; (3) has a straight or actually convex forehead ; 



(4) has the nasals, when taken in a line with the forehead, somewhat 

 protruding ; (5) the horns growing straight out from the sides of the 

 head, not incurving, but widest apart at the extreme tips ; (6) a dew- 

 lap and (7) variable colouration. 



Taking these points one by one it has been shewn that (2) whereas 

 the tame form often has the crest mure or less developed, and some- 



