42 MAMMALIA.. 



Drawing of horns. Hodgson, Icon. ined. B. M. t. 100. f. 1, 2. 

 Presented by B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



The Yaks dislike the warmth of summer, and hide themselves 

 in the shade and water ; they swim well ; both sexes grunt like 

 a pig. The calves are covered with rough, black, curled hair, like 

 a curled haired dog ; when of three months old they obtain the 

 long hair on the body and tail. They willingly live with the 

 common cows, and breed with them. The long white hairs of 

 the tail are dyed red to form the tufts of hair on the caps of the 

 Chinese. Pallas, Act. Acad. Petrop. 1777, 250. 



The Yak used for the plough are ugly and short-legged, and 

 hold their heads very low ; the beautiful long silky hair, hanging 

 from below the belly, is almost, if not entirely, wanting in them, 

 no less than the bushy tail, which their avaricious owners com- 

 monly cut off as an article of trade ; they are guided by the nose. 

 Hoffmeister, Travels in Ceylon, fyc., 441. 



The Yak Ox used in riding is an infinitely handsomer animal ; 

 it has a stately hump, a rich silky hanging nearly reaching the 

 ground, twisted horns, a noble bearing, and an erect head 

 (p. 441). They are very shy, and kick with their hind-feet, turn- 

 ing their head round perpetually, as if about to gore their riders 

 (p. 443). 



Our broad-footed Yak Ox is the beast with the thick, silky, 

 white fringe under the body, and the bushy tail, both of which 

 sweep the ground ; .... as the steepness increased, these poor 

 animals began to moan, or rather grunt, in the most melancholy 

 manner, and this unearthly music gradually rose to such a violent 

 rattle, that driven rather by its irksome sound than by the dis- 

 comfort of our saddleless seat, we dismounted at the end of the 

 first half-hour (p. 443). 



The Yak or Chauri Gau inhabits all the loftiest plateaux of 

 High Asia, between the Altai and the Himalaya, the Belut Jag 

 and the Peling mountains, and is found tame as well as wild. It 

 cannot live on the south side of the Himalaya beyond the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the snows, where the tribes of the Cachars or 

 Juxtanivean regions of the sub-Himalayas rear large herds of it, 

 and cross-breeds with the Common Ox. They rut in winter, 

 and produce young in autumn. Caecum simple, not sacked nor 

 banded, 4 inches long ; ribs fourteen or fifteen pair ; true dorsal 

 ridge confined to the withers; dewlap none. Hodgson. 



7. OVIBOS. 



Nose ovine, hairy, without any naked muffle ; inner edge of 

 the nostril with a bald margin. Horns of the male very broad 

 at the base, nearly united together, tapering, pressed downwards 



