Yak 53 



Plate IV. 



Characters. — Skull relatively long, with the forehead nearly Hat, and 

 only a small boss ot bone above the true occiput showing in a front view. 

 General build massive and size large ; the withers being relatively high, 

 and the back nearly level, without any marked tailing away of the hind- 

 quarters ; height at shoulder reaching at least 5 feet 6 inches. Limbs 

 short and thick ; hoofs large and rounded ; muzzle and ears small ; dewlap 

 wanting. Horns very large and massive, black in colour, smooth and 

 generally cylindrical, although slightly compressed at the base in very old 

 animals ; their curvature at hrst upwards and outwards, then forwards, and 

 finally inwards and upwards, with a slightly backward inclination at the 

 tips in some examples. Fourteen pairs of ribs. Hair of upper-parts and 

 sides comparatively short and smooth, but on the lower portion of each 

 tiank produced into a long fringe extending across the shoulders and thighs ; 

 a tutt ot similar elongated hair on the chest ; and the terminal half of the 

 tail enveloped in a huge tuft of still longer hair, which seldom descends 

 much below the hocks. General colour dark blackish-brown, with a little 

 white in the neighbourhood of the muzzle, a sprinkling ot gray on the 

 head and neck in aged individuals, and a rusty tinge on the back ot old 

 bulls. 



Although 5 feet 6 inches at the shoulder seems to be the maximum 

 height ot which there is any delinite record, it is stated on good authority 

 that old bulls will reach nearly, if not quite 6 feet. z\ bull ot 5 feet 6 

 inches at the shoulder measured 7 feet 3 inches from the horns to the root 

 of the tail ; the length of the tail being 3 feet 4 inches, and the girth of 

 the body round the chest 'j], feet. Mr. H. M. Biddulph has, however, 

 recorded a specimen measuring 8 feet and \ inch from the horns to the 

 tail ; and a girth at the chest of 9 feet i^- inches has been measured. The 



