THE GAUR, OR GOUR. 



627 



This animal is rather variable in color, according to its age and sex, the old bulls 

 being of a blackish-brown color, and the females a reddish-bay. Upon the hinder 

 quarters is always a bold patch of white, the inside of the ears and the lips are of the same 

 hue, and the lower half of the legs is white. It is a tolerably large animal, the height 

 of an adult bull being about five feet six inches at the shoulder. In spite of its con- 

 stitutional shyness and its dread of man, it is domesticated by the inhabitants of Borneo, 

 and is employed for many useful purposes. 



LARGEST of all the existing members of the Ox trible, is the GAUR, or GOUR, an animal 

 which may be easily recognized by the extraordinary elevation of the spinal ridge and 

 the peculiarly white " stockings." The general color of the. Gaur is a deep brown, 



BANTENG, OR JAVAN OX.-Bibos Banting. 



verging here and there upon black, the females being usually paler than their mates. 

 The dimensions of the Gaur are very considerable, a full-grown bull having been known 

 to measure six feet ten inches in height at the shoulders. The great height of the 

 shoulder is partly owing to the structure of the vertebrae, some of which give out pro- 

 jections of sixteen inches in length. 



The Gaur associates in little herds of ten, twenty, or thirty in number, each herd 

 generally consisting of a few males and a great comparative number of the opposite sex. 

 These herds frequent the deepest recesses of the forest, and in their own domains bear 

 supreme rule, neither tiger, rhinoceros, or elephant daring to attack them. During the 

 heat of noonday, the Gaurs are buried in the thickest coverts, but in the early morning, 

 and after the setting of the sun, they issue from their place of concealment, and go forth 

 to pasture on the little patches of open verdure that are generally found even in the 



