IXDIAX WILD CATTLE. 189 



wary and difficult to get at. Other conditions being favourable, wherever 

 there are salt-licks, that is, depressions where a whitish clay impregnated with 

 natron is found, these wild caiule, deer, and even the felidce ■\\ill abound. It 

 is the gayal that are in captivity, and not the gaur. When I first went to 

 Burma I wrote to Mr. Blyih, the Curator of the museum in Calcutta, that 

 the Burmese gaur appeared to me to be larger, and to difffr somewhat from 

 the Indian; but he wrote back I must be mistaken, as the gayal took its place 

 in that country, the true gaur being absent. However, I was soon able to 

 correct him by sending him heads, and hs he shortly after visited the province 

 he convinced himself that I was right, and wrote that, not only were there 

 the true gaur in the cnuntry, but that the skulls and horns were superior to 

 those from Southern lndi;i. I pointed out to " Smoothbore," many years ago 

 that there were two distinct varieties of this wild bull ; but he was incredulous 

 until he visited Calcutta and spoke to Dr. Anderson, who said, " Pollok is 

 quite right ; here are skulls of both." The discrepancies may be due to cli- 

 matic influences and abundance of food; undoubtedly the gaur of Burma and 

 of our Nortb-Eastern Frontier are larger than the Indian. I have shot a 

 bull within an ace of 21 hands at the shoulder, and General Blake, an old 

 sportsman, shot a cow 19 hands, wheieas the largest bull killed by him in 

 India was of the same size, and the largest he ever saw killed in the Wynaad 

 but two inches higher. Even in India gaur vary, those of the Western Ghats 

 being larger, and with a profile like a ram, in that respect resembling their 

 Burmese brethren. Not only does the Burmese gaur stand higher, but the 

 dorsal ridye extends further back to within a span of the croup, the dent in 

 the forehead is deeper, the cylindric crest higher, the horns larger, heavier 

 and more truncated, and but stldom worn at the tips as in the Indian. I 

 fancy food is so plentiful they have no need to grub up roots. The heads of 

 the females are, if anything, longer than those of the males, and the nose ia 

 more arched. 



Those in the Xorthern Circars of the Madras Presidency, where I shot a 

 great many, have, comparatively speaking, shorter heads and less of the ram 

 look, the dorsal ridge terminating about the middle of the back. Then, too 

 there is the dewlap. Has the gaur one or not ? Up to a few years ago the 

 opinion was — not. But the question cropped up about two years ago. Mr. 

 Bartlett, the late Superintendent of the " Zoo," wrote that the one. that lived 

 in the gardens had a well-developed one. Elliot, Jerdon, Campbell, Stern- 

 dale, all said he had none, and I too was of that opinion ; but " Smoothbore " 

 writes: "A planter of many years' experience in Travancore, and a keen 

 observant sportsman, states that in some examples the gaur have scarcely 

 any dewlap and that in others it is strongly developed. So marked is this 

 dirTerence that the natives divide them into two castes, calling one 'Katu 

 Madoo,' or Jungle Cow, and the other 'Katerimy,' or Jungle Buffalo. He has 

 shot old bulls with at least six inches of skin h-mgi-^g clear of the chest acd 



