66 J THE OX TRIBE. 



at five years. The female is generally higher than the 

 male. She receives the bull in her fifth year, and bears 

 after ten months. 



In reference to the case of Mr. Bird's Gayal breeding 

 with the common Zebu, I may observe that this proves 

 nothing beyond the bare fact stated ; no inference what- 

 ever of an identity of species can be drawn from a 

 thousand such cases. It is pretty well known that 

 animals of perfectly distinct species will, when artificially 

 brought together, produce hybrids, as in the familiar 

 examples of the Horse and the Ass, the Canary and the 

 Goldfinch ; but a hybrid is neither a species nor (zoologi- 

 cally speaking) a variety. 



In a paper on the Gour, by General Hardwicke, 

 (' Zoological Journal/ Vol. Ill,) he introduces the follow- 

 ing observations on the Gayal : " Of the Gayal (Bos 

 Gavaas of Colebrooke) there appears to be more than 

 one species. The provinces of Chatgong and Sylhet pro- 

 duce the wild, or, as the Natives term it, the Asseel 

 Gayal, and the domesticated one. The former is con- 

 sidered an untameable animal, extremely fierce, and not 

 to be taken alive. It rarely quits the mountain tract of 

 the south-east frontier, and never mixes with the Gobbay, 

 or village Gayal of the plains. I succeeded in obtaining 

 the skin, with the head, of the Asseel Gayal, which is 

 deposited in the Museum of the Hon. East-India Com- 

 pany, in Leadenhall Street." [A drawing was taken of 

 this head, of which the engraving on the opposite page is 

 a copy.] 



" I may notice another species of Gayal, of which a 

 male and female were in the Governor General's park, at 

 Barrackpore. This species differs in some particulars 



