External Characters of Ruminant Arlio'lacfi/fa. \0'.\ 



slioit (Imntioii. It mny tint indood date back heyoml tlic 

 Diitcli occupation of .lava in tlu; seventecth ciMitury. 



In the second j)lace, tlie theory seems to me to he iiiado- 

 quntcly 8U|)|)orted on thf zooloj^ical side. Jud;;iii;^ from iho 

 banton^ I have seen, I shouM say there is nothin|^ distinctly 

 zebu-hkc about them except tho shiping croup and the sexual 

 dimorphism in colour. Apart from those characters, which I 

 suspect are primitive in the Bovinie (rf. infra, p. 108), l)aMtenj; 

 exhibit no noticeable n«scml>lanci'S to zebus, except such as ixvc 

 shared I)y many European cattle above suspicion of /.fbii idond 

 in thoir veins. Bantong, inileed, are rcmarkal^Iy "taurine" 

 in style apart from their white stocking"*, white rumps, elevated 

 withers, and tlie roughness of the nuked skin of the inler- 

 cornual area in adult bulls. And these characters, be it 

 noted, also ditfcrentiate them from zebus, which, in my expe- 

 rience of many intliviiluals of the best-delined breeds, never 

 show a trace of them. This is not what one wouM ox[n'ct if 

 the thcry of the relationship between the two types were 

 sound. Mr. Lydekker certainly suggests that the white 

 tetlock-rings seen in some zebus may be the remains of the 

 white stockings in the banteng; but whatever be the, value of 

 this suggestion, it is discountoil in the question at issue by 

 the presence of this ring in some English park cattle claimed 

 to be of pure aurociis descent. 



Mr. Lydekker also attempts to explain tlic hump so charac- 

 teristic of zebus as the concentrated remains of the tissue 

 covering in the banteng the high spinous processes of the 

 thoracic vertebrw, suggesting that it was left behind, so to 

 speak, when arrnrding to the theory these bony processes 

 became reduced during the evolution of the zebu from that 

 species. I do not think this theory of the origin of the hump 

 need be discussed until the suppositioji upon which it rests, 

 that the vertebrie in question have been shortened, is supported 

 by more evidence than is at present forthcoming. For 

 myself, I should be inclined to comjiare the hump of the zel.u 

 to the accumulation of tissue wliieli may be seen just in trout 

 of the withers in many well-fed European bulls (see, for 

 exam|»lc, pi. xiii. <>E I^Ir. Lydekker's volume), and wiiieh was 

 quite |)erccptible in a bull banteng recently exhibited in the 

 zoological Gardens. However tliat may bo, it cannot in my 

 opinion be seriously claimed that the huir.p of the zel)U and 

 the elevated doisal crrst of the banteng are evidence of 

 nflinity between the two. The extt-riial uppearance of the 

 animals, in short, atTurds no support to the view that the 

 banteng is tho ancestor of the zebu. 



It may be recalled that the dilfercnce in voice between 



