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



shot with horns similar to those of the tame form bridges over 

 this difference between them, and does away with its specific 

 value. 



This disposes of the head points, and such as can be shewn by photo- 

 graphs of skulls and horns. 



Of the other variations said to be specific between the tame and the 

 wild forms the one most often mentioned, perhaps, is the presence 

 or the absence of the dewlap. 



Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, in The Field of August 27th, 1898, refers 

 to this at some length, and comes to the conclusion that there 

 is, from what is recorded, no decided opinion on the subject, but 

 that different observers of different individual animals have oiven 

 different opinions, thus showing that it is the individual and not the 

 species which vary. 



The various opinions I can collect seem to be the following : — 



Roxburgh says re the gayal : " The dewlap is deep and pendent." 



Dr. Trail : " The presence of a dewlap distinguishes it ( the gayal ) 

 from the ganr." 



Jerdon says that the gaur has the skin of " throat loose giving 

 the appearance of a dewlap," whilst the gayal has a " small but 

 distinct " dewlap. 



Col. Pollok found no dewlap in the two or three he examined. 



A. T. Martin, writing to Mr. Tegetmeier, described the dewlap -of a 

 full grown bull gaur as " a large dewlap, covered with coarse 

 black hair, hanging down to a little below the knees." 



Blanford gives the presence of a dewlap as a distinctive feature, but 

 he quotes from others, and does not seem to give the distinction as one 

 ascertained beyond all doubt. 



Personally I feel sure that the absence or presence of a dewlap is in- 

 dividual, but that wild animals as a rule have it less developed than in 

 the tame, and that both forms sometimes have none at all. The 

 heaviest dewlap I have ever seen, either in a tame or wild animal, was 

 that possessed by the ram-nosed wild bull which I have already 

 mentioned. In this animal it was a distinct hanging dewlap, descend- 

 ing from beginning of the throat well down the breast to the fore- 

 legs, between which it dwindled away to merely a loose fold of skin on 

 the upper chin, and between the radial bones of the cheeks it 

 was nothing more than rather loose skin which could be gathered 

 up in the hands. 



