Gaur 27 



Indian Museum, Calcutta, from the districts north or east of the Bay of 

 Bengal, exhibiting a similar conformation of the forehead. 



Colonel Pollok writes as iollows on this point : — '' Not only does the 

 Burmese gaur stand higher, but the dorsal ridge 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 seldom worn at the tips as in the Indian." He adds, however, that 

 even in India gaur are variable, and that those from the Western Ghats 

 are larger, with a profile more like a ram, than those from the Wynad 

 district, thereby resembling their Burmese brethren. Further, in the 

 young Malayan bull, formerly living in the London Zoological Gardens 

 and figured by Mr. Blanford in the Society's Proceedings for 1890, the 

 dorsal ridge is represented as terminating in the middle of the back. 



Althougli a larger series of specimens may ultimately enable such 

 division to be made, the evidence at present available is insutiicient to 

 admit ot the gaur from the eastern portion of the animal's range — the 

 sladang ot the Malays — being separated as a race distinct from the 

 western form. With regard to the abnormal skulls from the Mishmi 

 Hills and neighbourhood, I have no suggestion to offer, unless it be 

 that they indicate a strain of gayal blood. 



Another question relates to the absence or presence of a dewlap. Mr. 

 Blanford states that no distinct dewlap is developed ; and it is certainly 

 wanting in the British Museum specimens. On the other hand, a 

 Travancore planter quoted by Colonel Pollok writes that while some ot 

 the gaur in that district have little or no dewlap, in others that appendage 

 is well developed, and may form a fold of skin depending several inches 

 from the neck. So marked indeed is the difference that the natives divide 

 the gaur into two races, according to the presence or absence of the 

 appendage in question. 



The observation recorded above that female and young gaur inhabiting 



