770 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



opment of the ridge on the back, and a larger dewlap on the throat of the bulls. 

 The head is also shorter and broader, with a perfectly flat forehead and a straight 

 line between the bases of the horns. The horns, which are very thick and massive, 

 are less flattened and much less curved than in the gaur, extending almost directly 

 outward from the sides of the head, and curving somewhat upward at the tips, but 

 without any inward inclination. Their extremities are thus much farther apart 

 than in the gaur. The color is very nearly the same as in the latter, the head and 

 body being blackish brown in both sexes, and the lower portion of the limbs white 

 or yellowish. The horns are of uniform blackish tint from base to tip. Some 

 domesticated gayal are parti-colored, while others are completely white. 



The gayal stands much lower at the withers than the gaur. In the skull of an 

 old wild bull measured by Mr. Blanford the horns reached fourteen inches both in 

 length and basal girth; but these dimensions are exceeded by those of many 

 domesticated specimens. The cow gayal, as shown in our illustration, is a much 

 smaller animal than the bull, and has scarcely any dewlap on the throat. 



It has been ascertained by Mr. Blanford that the gayal occurs in a 

 wild condition in Tenasserim; but in a more or less domesticated con- 

 dition large herds of these animals are kept by the Kuki tribes on the hill districts of 

 Tipperah. It is, moreover, certain that some of the domesticated cattle kept by the 

 hill tribes on both sides of the Assam valley in the districts of Manipur, Cachar, 

 Chittagong, and the Lushai hills, are gayal, although others are gaur. From indi- 

 cations afforded by certain skulls it is not improbable that these tame gayal and 

 gaur occasionally interbreed. Mr. Blanford observes that the tame herds of gayal 

 "are kept for food, and, according to some authorities, for their milk, though this 

 is doubtful, as most of the Indo-Chinese tribes who keep mithans never drink milk. 

 The animals appear to be never employed in agricultural labor, nor as beasts of 

 burden. They roam and feed unattended through the forest during the day, and 

 return to their owner's village at night." 



the gaur, the gayal is essentially an inhabitant of hill forests, 



and the facility with which it will traverse rocky country is little short 

 of marvelous for an animal of such bulky proportions. 



Gayal have been exhibited in England alive, but none of them were fully- 

 grown bulls, and consequently failed to give an adequate idea of the magnificent 

 proportions attained by that sex. Adult bulls have, however, been shown from 

 time to time in the Zoological Gardens at Calcutta, and were most splendid animals, 

 with glossy coats of the deepest shade of brown. Gayal will breed with the humped 

 cattle of India, and the product of such a union born in the London Zoological 

 Gardens was again crossed with a bull American bison. A pure-bred gayal calf 

 produced in the same menagerie was of a light brownish-red color, with the throat, 

 chest, and the inner sides of the legs white. 



THE BANTENG (Bos sondaicus} 



The banteng, or Javan ox, differs very considerably from both the preceding 

 species, and serves to connect them with the typical oxen. The most distinctive 



