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



the same, though Southern Indian specimens may run smaller. The 

 cows stand, I should say, in their wild state, 16 hands at the outside, 

 occasionally a barren cow reaching 17 hands. Col. Pollok here also 

 gives Burmese cows a height of 19 hands. 



The tame form is very much smaller than the wild ; a big bull may 

 run to 16 hands 2 inches, possibly a little more though I think not ; 

 cows are probably seldom over 14 hands, but specimens are sometimes 

 seen nearly if not quite 15. 



There is yet another point which has been used by some writers 

 to differentiate their so-called two species, and this is the formation 

 of the dorsal ridge. This they say is shorter in the gayal than in 

 the gaur, less developed, and does not end so abruptly. I have 

 noticed no regular variation at all in this and can point out no 

 difference. The wild animal is of course a bigger far more muscular 

 brute than the tame, and doubtless his dorsal ridge is, with all 

 his other parts, more developed than it is in the tame, but I can 

 determine no structural difference whatsoever, nor do I think any 

 such exists. 



As regards the name methna, this is the one by which the animal, 

 both in its wild and tame form, is known practically throughout the 

 North-East Frontier, from Sadya and Dibrughur, throughout Assam, 

 Manipur, Looshai and down to Chittagong. The word is, I think, 

 nothing more than a corruption of the Cachari word mithang, which 

 means " the muscular animal " from mi (fjj)=animal and thang ( ?Tf*. ) 

 = strong or muscular. This is applied alike to the tame and to the 

 wild animal by the Cacharis merely with the prefix hagrani ( 3^£tTfT )= 

 of the jungle, to the wild animal and noni (^rtfr)=of the house, to the 

 tame. Looshais, Kukis, Nagas and other hill tribes all have their own 

 names for the animal, and in nearly all cases it is the same for both. 



In colour, comparing the two forms, age for age and sex with sex 

 I can make no discrimination between the two, but if any such does 

 exist it may be in the wild form retaining the chestnut colour of 

 immaturity for a longer time than does the tame. 



I may mention here that there is in the Hon. W. Rothschild's fine 

 museum at Tring a specimen of what is called a gaur. The colour of 

 the skin is quite a bright chestnut, and the size is not greater than that 

 of a two-year-old bull gaur with which age the colour of the skin 

 corresponds. The horns are those of a very small but old wild bull. 



