106 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



almost black on the back and sides, and showing a rich chest- 

 nut shade only on the lower parts of the body and inside of 

 the thighs. The colour of both bulls and cows varies a good 

 deal in different localities. The lightest coloured are those of 

 the open grass jungles in the west, the darkest those of the 

 deep bamboo forests of Puchmurree and the east. The white 

 stockings, which are so characteristic a marking of this species, 

 also change with advancing age, assuming a much dingier 

 colour in the old bulls. A singular change also occurs in the 

 growth of the horns, which will be well illustrated by the 

 accompanying plate of a photographed series belonging to 

 bulls of different ages shot in the same locality (Nimar). 

 No. 1 belonged to a young chestnut-coloured bull of about 

 five years old. Its shape, it will be seen, approximates to 

 that of tHe cows (No. 5), being, like them, slender and much 

 recurved at the points. No. 2 pertained to a very dark, but 

 not black, bull, evidently a year or two older than the first, 

 but not. quite mature. The horns have considerably increased 

 in girth at the base, and have assumed a more outward sweep, 

 with less incurvature at the points. No. 3 are still thicker 

 and more horizontal, with some signs of wear at the tips, and 

 were taken from a full-grown jet-black bull, the lord of a 

 herd. No. 4 adorned a very old and solitary bull, and are, it 

 will be seen, extremely rugged and massive, with scarcely any 

 curve, and are considerably worn and blunted at the points. 

 They measure thirty-seven and a half inches across the sweep, 

 and seventeen round the thickest part. No. 3 are the longest 

 round the curve of the horn, each measuring twenty-five and 

 a half inches, the extreme girth being only fifteen and a half 

 inches. The largest of these bulls measured exactly seventeen 

 and a quarter hands (five feet nine inches) at the shoulder, 

 measuring fairly the right line between two pegs held in the 



