140 Incidents of Foreign Field Sport. 



takes their place. But in Chittagong, the gaur, the 

 gayal and the tsine (wild cattle) are found not far 

 from one another inhabiting the same hills and 

 forests. Assam is never free from the cattle disease, 

 and this at times extends to the wild cattle, who 

 when stricken go down to the Wheels where they die 

 in hundreds. The Assamese call the gaur and gayal 

 mithun if pressed, they call the larger animal (the 

 gaur) the asseel mithun (or true mithun), and the 

 other mithun only. This led the late Mr. Sanderson, 

 a careful observer, to assert that the gayal was not 

 found in a wild state, for the mithun shot by him 

 were undoubtedly true gaur. The gaur has not been 

 known to interbreed with domestic cattle, whilst 

 hybrids between the gayal and the zebu are very 

 common. 



I shot a great many gaur in Burma, a few in 

 Assam, and many in India. The late Mr. Blyth, the 

 best naturalist of his day, wrote to me that T must 

 be mistaken in declaring that the gaur was to be found 

 in Burma, as he thought its place there was taken by 

 the gayal, but some heads which I sent him, and some 

 he procured himself when on a visit to the province, 

 induced him to write that, not only was he mistaken 

 in asserting that this noble wild bull did riot exist, 

 but that on the contrary, the Burmese variety was 

 much finer than the Indian. The first pyoung 

 (Burmese for gaur) I saw killed in Burma, was when 

 I was out with the late Brigadier Glencairn Campbell, 

 Major Lloyd, and Liardet. The first-named killed 

 it, but the second claimed it, as having first hit it. 

 We saw many more that trip, but got no other then. 

 The next year I was out and shot several three in 



