OXEN. 



179 



herds by their younger rivals after deadly combats, the marks of which are to be 

 seen on their scored and seamed flanks, as well as in their slit and frayed ears and 

 their battered horns. Mr. Sanderson says that these solitary bulls always have 

 the finest heads and horns, and offer the most noble object of pursuit to the sports- 

 man. The morose and savage disposition commonly attributed to these outcasts is 

 regarded by the same writer as not altogether authenticated. It is true, indeed, 

 that men are sometimes killed by a sudden rush from one of these solitary bulls, 

 but that this is generally owing to the circumstance that the animal has been 

 suddenly surprised, and thereupon starts up and rushes forwards without consider- 

 ing what may be in its path. 



Gaur-shooting, from the nature of the ground, is invariably 

 undertaken on foot, and, next to elephant-shooting, is considered ,to 

 be the finest sport with the rifle in India. Good trackers are essential to its 

 success; but these are fortunately to be found among the non- Aryan hill-tribes 

 of Southern India, who are unsurpassed in the keenness and accuracy with 

 which they follow a trail. The emergence of an old solitary bull-gaur on an 

 open glade, among the tall bamboo forests of the hills of Southern India, is described 

 as being one of the finest sights with which the toils of the sportsman can be 

 rewarded. When killed, the gaur affords excellent meat, the great delicacy being 

 the marrow -bones roasted on the camp fire. 



The Gayal {Bos frontalis). 



Well known for many years as existing in a semi-domesticated condition 

 in the hilly districts of North-Eastern India, it is but recently that the gayal 

 has been determined to be a truly wild species, although we have yet no definite 

 information of its habits or the limits of its range in this condition. 



The gayal, or, as it is frequently termed the mithan, is nearly allied to the 

 gaur, from which, however, it differs in several important particulars. In the first 

 place, it is a somewhat smaller animal, with proportionately shorter limbs, a minor 

 development of the ridge on the back, and a larger dewlap on the throat of the 

 bulls. The head is also shorter and broader, with a perfectly flat forehead and a 

 straight line between the bases of the horns. The horns, which are very thick and 

 massive, are less flattened and much less curved than in the gaur, extending almost 

 directly outwards from the sides of the head, and curving somewhat upwards at the 

 tips, but without any inward inclination. Their extremities are thus much farther 

 apart than in the gaur. The colour is very nearly the same as in the latter, the 

 head and body being blackish-brown in both sexes, and the lower portion of the 

 limbs white or yellowish. The horns are of uniform blackish tint from base to 

 tip. Some domesticated gayals are parti-coloured, while others are completely 

 white. 



The gayal stands much lower at the withers than the gaur. In the skull of 

 an old wild bull measured by Mr. Blanford the horns reached 14 inches both in 

 length and basal girth; but these dimensions are exceeded by those of many 

 domesticated specimens. The cow gayal, as shown in our illustration, is a much 

 smaller animal than the bull, and has scarcely any dewlap on the throat. 



