242 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



Sometimes, however, the methna wander off again to the site of the 

 old village, although it may be overgrown with jungle, and then the 

 same process of leading them back by the inducement of offerings 

 of salt has again to be gone through. 



Rarely — very rarely — a young feral gaur may be caught by the 

 Kukis or Nagas and brought back to their villages, hand-reared and 

 then turned out amongst their tame animals. I have seen two or 

 three such, but all of them were wild in the extreme, and bolted as 

 soon as they saw me distinctly ; whereas many of the village animals 

 would allow themselves to be handled. The only difference they show,, 

 as far as I can make out, to those reared naturally in a wild state, is 

 their comparatively very small size. 



Several herds of methna are kept by the tribes in North Cachar, 

 which contain no full grown bull, the young males being all killed off 

 for sacrifices by festivities, etc., before they reach the age of three years. 

 In these cases the tame herds are regularly visited by the wild bulls, 

 and nineteen out of twenty of the calves born in them are the progeny 

 of wild bulls and tame cows, the young in almost every instance re- 

 sembling the latter and not the former. It is, however, very noticeable 

 that such herds as are much visited by wild bulls contain animals of a 

 bigger, robuster build than such as are habitually served by tame ones,, 

 often young and undersized animals. Strange to say the typical varia- 

 tions of the wild form seem seldom to be transmitted to their progeny, 

 and it is the female parent which would, in this species, appear to 

 stamp its form on the young. The variations, therefore, and connect- 

 ing links between the two forms are found quite as often amongst those 

 herds which have no connection with wild animals as amongst those 

 which have much. 



Photograph b in the second series is of an animal which in the great 

 length of horn, large size and bulky muscle, shewed a growth attribut- 

 able, most likely, to its wild blood ; on the other hand, the forehead 

 was unusually straight, and there was absolutely no concavity in the 

 forehead. 



Photos c of the first series and h of the second is a head which I 

 obtained from a Kuki raja living on the borders of Manipur. This man 

 and his herd of methna I have known well ever since I came here 

 thirteen years ago, and never have I known a wild bull to visit it or 

 even to haunt the vicinity. The village has been settled some twenty 

 years in its present site, and prior to that had been about twenty years 



