ANIMALS. 539 



tliiue, for tbey break through all fences to get into the corn- 

 fields, and lead the whole tame herd after them, wherever they 

 penetrate. They breed also with the tame kinds originally 

 brought over from Europe ; and thus produce a race peculiar to 

 that country. 



and clumsy ; tlie false hoofs are much larger than those of the aebu ; tlie 

 hinder parts are weaker in proportion than the forehead ; and owing to the 

 construction of the belly, the hinder legs, although, in fact, the shortest, 

 appear to be the longest. 



The whole body is covered with a coat of short hair : from the summit of 

 the head, there diverges, with a whirl, a bunch of rather long coarse hair, 

 tvhich lies flat, is usually white or lighter-coloured than the rest, and ex- 

 tends towards the horns and over the forehead. The genera! colour is brown 

 in various shades, wliich very often approaclies to black, but sometimes is 

 rather light; the legs and belly are usually white, as also the tip of the tail. 



The head is about one foot eight inches long, and the distance between the 

 roots of the horns ten inches ; total length from nose to tail about nine feet 

 six inches ; height at the shoulders, four feet nine or ten inches ; height at 

 the loins, four feet four or five inches. Circumference of the chest, six feet 

 seven inches ; circumference of the loins, five feet ten inches ; length of the 

 norns, one foot two inches ; length of ears, ten inches. 



The voice of the gayal has no resemblance to the grunt of the Indian ox ; 

 it is a kind of lowing, but shriller, and not near so loud as that of the Euro- 

 pean ox, but resembling it more than the buffalo's. The Cucis or Lunctas, 

 a people inhabiting the hills to the eastward of Chayaon, (Chitagong) have 

 herds of the gayal in a domestic state, from time iraraeraorial, and without 

 any variation in their appearance from the wild stock : no difference what- 

 ever being observable i- the colour, both having the same variations of the 

 brown shades; nor in their stature, both being bred in nearly the same 

 habits of freedom, on the same food, and the domestic not undergoing any 

 labour. By them it is called Shial, from which, most probably, its name of 

 Gayal. It is possible that the wild cattle of Siam, who use their terrible horns 

 with great success against the tiger, noticed by colonel Syms under the name 

 Catin, are of this species. 



Beside the above existing species, it may be proper to mention the fossil 

 Bisons. 



The Broad-headed Fossil Bison (B. Latifrotu) of Dr Harlan, is described 

 by baron Cuvier. The skull differs little from that of the bison, except in 

 its greater dimensions ; the forehead is arched, broader than high ; the horns 

 are attached two inches before the line formed by the union of the facial and 

 occipital surfai'es, which latter form an obtuse angle ; the plane of the occiput 

 represents a semicircle ; the horn is twenty-one inches in circumference at 

 Its base ; a fragment of this size was found in Kentucky, and similar skulls 

 were discovered near Meliiick in Bohemia, in Italy, and on the Rhine, m 

 Uussia, .Siberia, and probably over the whole northern hemisphere. 



Ihe Bus Bovihifions of the same American author is described by Mr 

 Wistar from a skull presented by Mr Jefterson to the American Philnso- 

 phical Society. The top of the head between the horns is strongly arched 

 and projecting, facial line forming rather an acute angle, with the occipila.' 



