108 Mr. R. I. Pocock on some 



ill this particular is very great, as is shown hj the Mysore 

 and Gnjrati hreeds represented on pi. xvii. The Gujrati 

 zehn, indeed, has a croup very sensibly approaching that of 

 European cattle in its elevation. 



Colour. — One or two colour-characters are mentioned by 

 Lydekker as evidence of specific distinctness between B. taurus 

 and B. indicus. He speaks of white rings round the eyes 

 and fetlocks as characteristic of the zebu. But since such 

 typical examples of B. taurus as park cattle by no means 

 infrequently have white rings round the fetlocks, and since 

 the hair round the eyes in Jerseys, which are beyond suspicion 

 of zebu blood, should, as Lydekker says (p, 115), be 

 cream-coloured or grevish, it is quite clear that no value can 

 be attached to these points. Again, the presence of a light 

 ppinal stripe in Kerry cattle (p. 95) in the Craven breed of 

 longhorns (p. 8-4) and in Oastilian bulls (p. 132) is quoted as 

 certain evidence of aurochs descent. Very likely that is the 

 case. Rut a white spinal stripe is not uncommonly present 

 in pure-bred zebus. Hence if tliis character has the signiti- 

 cance claimed for it by Lydekker, it is evidence of consan- 

 guinity between B. faurus and B. indicus. 



Finally, in the tendency exhibited by bull banteng to 

 become black, and thus depart from the rufous tint of cows 

 and young bulls, Lydekker sees the origin of the sexual 

 difference in colour between some breeds of zebu, the cows of 

 which are whitish while the bulls are blackish or iron-grey *. 

 But traditional information about the aurochs suggests that 

 that species also was sexually dimorphic in colour. One 

 aurochs indeed was recorded as grey — presumably, that is to 

 say, zebu-like. Hence the colour-difference between the sexes 

 of zebus cannot be claimed with assurance as a banteng 

 character. So far as it goes, indeed, it suggests closer 

 aflfinity between the zebus and the aurochs than between the 

 latter and typical breeds of Bos taurus, in which the sexes 

 are, I believe, alike. But I am not prepared to lay any great 

 sfress upon this point, because, as stated above, I suspect 

 sexual dimorphism of colour in cattle to be a primitive 

 character inherited from a Tragelaphine ancestor!. How- 



* Bull calves of the Mysore and Gujrati breeds begin to darken in the 

 first year. 



t Lydekker (pp. 32-33 Sc 253) appears to have been attracted by 

 Prof. Lonnberg's view that cattle are closely related to the gnus {Conno- 

 ch-cetes). He adds, however, that although the direct ancestry of the ox 

 tribe is still unknown, the earliest representatives of the group are related 

 to the buli'aloes, which constitute in some respects the most primitive of 



