306 BOVINE. 



the niglit, they start off with a loud hissing snort. The Gowlees say that 

 they see great numbers of bison when pasturing their herds in the neigh- 

 bouring forest. They describe them as very timid and watchful, more 

 so than any othet wild animal, always reposing in a circle, with their 

 heads turned outside, ready to take alarm. 



The bison is generally driven towards the sportsman by a line of 

 beaters, he remaining concealed behind a tree. A wounded bison will 

 occasionally charge, and several fatal instances are recorded ; but in 

 general he will turn and seek safety in flight. Hodgson says that " in 

 the Tarai, the Gaur will pursue his assailant, and if he climb a tree, will 

 watch for a whole day;" but this account is evidently from native 

 shikarees, and such conduct must be perfectly exceptional. Mi-. Elliot 

 remarks that " the persevering ferocity of the bison of the Sub-Hima- 

 layan range," described by Mr. Hodgson, ** is quite foreign to the cha- 

 racter of the animal in southern forests." 



Various attempts have been made to rear the young Gaur, but they have 

 all failed, the young animal never living over his third year. Bly th had a 

 young calf at Calcutta, procured near Singapoi-e, which he shipped for 

 England, but it died on the voyage. An engraving of a i:)hotograpli of 

 this calf was published in the "Illustrated London News." " It was tame 

 and tractable," says Blyth, " yet full of life and frolic." The natives of 

 Malabar-, according to Buchanan Hamilton's MSS., assert that bisons 

 take up stones with their nostrils, and discharge them at their adversaries 

 with the force of a musket-ball, and that the wound is always mortal ! 



The flesh of the Gaur is excellent if not too old, and the marrow-bones 

 and tongue are delicacies always presei-ved by the successful sportsman. 



The Gayal or Mithun, Gavceus frontalis, is found in the hilly tracts to 

 the east of the Burrampooter, and at the head of the valley of Assam, the 

 Mishmi hills and their vicinity, probably extending north and east into the 

 borders of China. It is domesticated extensively and easily, and has bred 

 with the common Indian cattle. It is a heavy, clumsy -looking animal com- 

 pared with tXxeGaur, the wild animal similarly coloured and with white legs. 

 It browses more than the Gaur, and, unlike that, it has a small but dsitinct 

 dewlap. The domesticated race extends south as far as the Tippera and 

 Chittagong hills, and northwards, has been seen grazing in company with 

 the Yak, close to the snows. It is better adapted for rocky and precipitous 

 ground than the Gaur. Gayals have often been taken alive to Calcutta. 

 The ^06' SylJietanus, figd. by M. F. Cuvier, is a hybrid with the Zebu. 



