XI HYBRID OXEN ai7 
The members of the Bovine section or Oxen are to be dis- 
tinguished from other hollow-horned Ruminants by their stouter 
build and by the fact that the horns stand out from the sides of 
the skull and are simply curved, not twisted; and smooth, not 
annulate like those of other Ruminants. The muffle is naked, 
broad, and moist. The Oxen are widely distributed; but are 
entirely absent from the Austrahan region and from South 
America and Madagascar. 
The true Oxen are perhaps best considered to form but a 
single genus, Bos. They have, however, been divided into a number 
of genera. Even the supposed aberrant Anoa depressicornis of 
Celebes hardly differs sufficiently to warrant its separation. In 
favour of this view, too, is the extraordinary ease with which 
different “genera” will cross with each other and produce fertile 
offspring. The following is the pedigree of an animal lately 
living in the Zoological Society’s Gardens. The female offspring 
of a male Zebu and a female Gayal was mated with a male Bison. 
The female calf was again mated with a Bison and produced a 
calf, also a female, which contained therefore the three species, 
Bos indicus, Bibos frontalis, and Bison americanus. It is clearly 
unwise in view of this fact to insist too much upon generic dis- 
tinctions in any of those types.' 
Of this genus the Oriental Gaur (Los gaurus), the Gayal (B. 
frontalis), and the Banteng (4. sondaicus) form a well-marked 
section, characterised by their dark coloration and by the some- 
what flattened horns. 
The Gaur, Bos gaurus, has a more concave forehead than its 
allies; the horns are less curved than those of the Banteng, and 
less so than the horns of the Gayal (Bos frontalis). It inhabits 
the Indian Peninsula; and extends through Burmah to the ex- 
tremity of the Malay Peninsula. The Malay name of this 
animal is Sakiutan, which simply means wild cattle. It chiefly 
frequents wooded hills and is an excellent mountain climber. 
Bos frontalis, the Indian Gayal, has a white caudal disc like 
the last species, but the forehead is flat and the horns curve but 
little. It is chiefly known as a tame animal, and its occurrence 
in the wild state has been doubted. It has furthermore been 
suggested that it is merely a tame race of the Gaur altered 
1 A. D. Bartlett, ‘‘On some Hybrid Bovine Animals bred in the Society's 
Gardens,” Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 399. 
