Gayal 31 



restricted the wild beasts, particularly the elephants and gaur, when 

 passing across the estate, to one or two pathways. One particular track 

 was, however, lett to them for about ten years, when further cultivation 

 led at last to the blocking up of even this right of way. The animals 

 were at first much puzzled, and both elephants and gaur took to wander- 

 ing about the cultivation. The elephants accommodated themselves to the 

 altered conditions and used the estate paths. The gaur, more suspicious, 

 took a straight line tor their grazing grounds over the rotten felled 

 timber and through the older cinchona plantations, but were often brought 

 up by the sight of white-washed walls surmounted by a corrugated iron 

 roof. At last they settled down to a pathway between the old cinchona and 

 a natural belt left between it and the new clearing. A pit lo feet long, 

 8 feet wide and 8 feet deep, was dug on the boundary, covered with a mat 

 made of reeds and bamboos, over which earth and dry leaves were scattered. 

 The smell of the fresh earth, however, turned them off. Once a gaur got 

 his fore-feet down the side ot the pit, but made a bold jump and cleared it." 

 The title of bison commonly given to this species by Anglo-Indian 

 sportsmen is a misnomer. 



2. The Gayal — Bos frontalis 



Bos frontalis, Lambert, Triuis. Li/i/i. Soc. vol. vii. pp. 57 and 302 

 (1804) ; Sundevall, A'. Svc/iska Vet. Ak. Handl. for 1844, p. 76 (1846) ; 

 Blyth, JoiiriK As. Soc. Bciigcil, vol. xxxi. p. 338 (1862) ; P. L. Sclater, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1866, p. I, pi. i. ; Sarbo, //;/,/. 1883, p. 143 ; Blanford, ihiJ. 

 1890, p. 593, Fauna Brit. India — Manini. p. 487 (1891); W. L. Sclater, 

 Cat. Manim. lud. Miis. pt. ii. p. 126 (1891) ; Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclini. 

 Paris., vol. xxxviii. p. 9 (1891) ; Ward, Records of Big Game, p. 274 (1896). 



Bos gavceus, Colebrooke, As. Researches, vol. viii. p. 488 (1805); 

 Hodgson, Joiirn. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. x. pp. 453 and 470 (1841). 



