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



If Indian this must be a calf s skin put to an old head, but it is probably 

 a Malayan form, the pale coloured one, which has lately beeu specifically 

 divided from our Bos gaurus. 



The typical colour of the adult animal, gaur or gayal, is a very deep 

 purple brown, practically black ; the old cow gets quite as dark as the 

 old bull eventually, but retains the chestnut brown colour until nearly 

 three years old, after which she gradually gets darker and darker. 



Now, as regards the domestication of the gaur, a good deal bas been 

 said and written about it, which has its foundation on a story which was 

 started by McRae, quoted by Lambert and after him by many others. 

 Blanford, in the volume of " Mammalia," quotes me rather as if he 

 considered I supported this statement, so I must go into some detail 

 over it. 



McRae' s 3tory was to the effect that the Kukis found out a place 

 much frequented by some herd of gaur, where they scattered salt iibout. 

 At first, the salt being scattered, the Kukis departed out of sight, but 

 gradually they shewed themselves and by slow degrees made the gaur 

 so tame that eventually they accepted salt from their hands, and 

 following them home to their villages, became domesticated. 



Now this wonderful story is, I am sure, like the historical romance, 

 fiction founded on fact. I have lived amongst the Kukis thirteen 

 years, speak their language thoroughly, talk, shoot and go about with 

 them, yet never have I heard one word to lead me to believe that 

 such domestication ever took place. I have inquired also about the 

 Looshais and others, but with no more success, and to anyone who 

 knows the gaur well, the story can hardly seem within the range of 

 possibility. 



Probably the story arose from the following custom : The Kukis 

 are a semi-migrant race, constantly shifting their villages from one site 

 to another, and to each new site they have to induce their tame gayal 

 to follow. 



Now the gayal or methna seems to be an animal which attaches- 

 itself to places rather than to people, so that when the old village is- 

 burnt down, instead of meekly following their owners to the new 

 village, they constantly return to the site of the old one, where they 

 stay the night. The Kukis come in the morning, and by giving them 

 salt, of which they are passionately fond, gradually induce them to 

 follow them home, and once they get used to their new surroundings 

 they, as a rule, return each night to the village and sleep there. 



