ZOOLOGY. 811 



dolpbi's whale {B. borealis), wbicli was "captured in considerable num- 

 bers during the latter part of July, although the great blue whale 

 [B. nibbaldii), ^'enerally so numerous," was not then to be seen along 

 1 he coast. This is attributed to the absence of the Thysanopoda in- 

 erniis, a small crustacean on wliich the blue whale feeds. "Kudolphi's 

 whale is called 'seje' or 'cod' whale by the Norwegians, as it ap- 

 l»ears on the coast at the same time as that fish, but its food is 

 also a crustacean of still smaller species than that, which is the chief 

 nourishment of its gigantic relative." It generally visits the coast of 

 Finmark between May and August, and Guldberg states that its aver- 

 •.\^e length is about 40 feet, but it sometimes reaches a length of 50 feet. 

 '•'• Its color is black, and does not exhibit the bluish tint" seen in the B. 

 muscalus, as well as B. sibbaldii. "The sides are spotted with white, 

 and the under parts are white with a faint reddish tinge. A new use 

 to which the whales killed at Vado have been lately put is tinning their 

 flesh, which is said to be wholesome and to find great favor in Catholic 

 countries, where, being fish according to the zoology of the church, it 

 is allowed to be eaten on fast days." {Nature^ v. 32, p. 374.) 



Texan Horses of the Pliocene epoch. — It would seem, from the researches 

 of Professor Cope, that no less than five species of horse-like animals of 

 the genus Equus lived in what is now Texas during the Pliocene period, 

 and some of them appear to have been very abundant. Of these five 

 si)ecies, four also lived at same time in the valley- of Mexico, while one 

 is " peculiar to the Pacific coast and basin of North America." Of the 

 characteristic species of the eastern United States {E. fraternus and 

 J'J. major), only one (the E.fraternus) has been found in the Texas de- 

 posits. (Am. Nat., v. 19, pp. 1208-1209, pi. 37.) 



The Gayal and Gaur. — By t;he old naturalists, the two largest bovine 

 animals of India known as the gayal and gaur were supposed to be very 

 distinct animals. Of late, however, several have contended that they 

 were merely forms of the same species, one being the wild animal and 

 the other the semi-domesticated form, although others have main- 

 tained that the gayal existed as a distinct species in the wild state. It 

 was urged in 1883, by Mr. J. Sarbo, that there is no such thing as a wild 

 gayal. Now, according to Mr. Blanford, "one most important cir- 

 cumstance mentioned by Blyth, on apparently (jxcellent authority, is 

 that the gaur is kept tame in the interior of the Chittagong Hills, and 

 (as a tame animal) is quite distinct from Bos frontalis. If this is the case, 

 hybrids are very likely to occur, for the gayal breeds freely with the- 

 much less allied Zebu, and such hybrids may account for the occurrence 

 of forms intermediate between the gayal and gaur. An indication that 

 such forms exist is," so far as Mr. Blanford can see, "the only evidence 

 brought forward by Dr. Kuhn in favor of the gaj al being a domesti- 



