External Characters of Ruminant Artiodactyla. 107 
justification have we for assuming that the comparatively 
slight differences between the skulls of European cattle and 
lumped cattle indicate initial specific distinctness between 
these two? Obviously very little. 
The unsatisfactory nature of the evidence supplied by 
skulls and horns, is attested by the variety of opinions held 
by authors who have attempted to solve the difficult question 
of the origins of domesticated breeds of cattle, by relying 
largely on characters furnished by the cranium and _ its 
appendages. 
Dewlap.—The dewlap in zebus is often heavier and deeper 
and sometimes rises nearer the ehin* than in Huropean 
cattle believed to be of unmixed aurochs descent. I cannot 
satisfy myself as to the precise value attached to this feature 
by Lydekker. He quotes it as characteristic of zebu, when 
contrasting them with the European breeds of the aforesaid 
type, and more than once cites it as evidence of zebu blood in 
those European breeds that reproduce the character. But a 
precisely similar difference in the development of the dewlap 
exists between the domesticated gayal and the wild gaur ; yet 
in this case (pp. 149 & 177) Lydekker uses this difference to 
support the view that the gayal is nothing but a domesticated 
race of the gaur, and ascribes the larger size of the dewlap in 
the former to the effect of domestication, adding “ the exces- 
sive development of the dewlap in the humped cattle of 
India is perhaps also the result of domestication.” I quite 
agree with this view, but it clearly disposes of the claim that 
the larger size of the dewlap in zebus is evidence of their 
specific distinctness from pure-bred Kuropean cattle. 
Ears.—Blyth stated that the ears of B. indicus differ from 
those of B. tavrus in shape, being more pointed. In a 
general way this is perhaps true; but no zebu that I have 
seen has ears approaching in apical attenuation those of the 
Hungarian cow depicted by Lydekker on pl. xv. Even 
amongst zebus themselves the ears differ so much in size and 
shape, as may be seen by comparing those of the Gujrati and 
Mysore breeds (pl. xvii.), that no reliance can be placed on 
these organs as evidence of specific distinctness between 
zebus and normal European cattle. 
Croup.—Although zebus typically have a sloping croup, 
and never, within my experience, a horizontal croup like that 
of European cattle, nevertheless the differences between zebus 
* Many of Lydekker’s figures illustrating breeds of European cattle 
show the anterior lobe of the dewlap in the interramal area behind the 
chin, as in zebus. 
