180 CATALOGUE. 



BUNNOOREA GHOOROO, of the Assamese, Walker. 

 Several other native synonyms are enumerated by Mr. 

 Colebrooke. 



HAB. The range of mountains forming the eastern boundary 

 of Aracan, Chittagong, Tipura, and Silhet, Colebrooke. 

 Assam, Walker. 



A. A Drawing from Dr. F. (Buchanan) Hamilton's Col- 

 lection. Referred to by J. E. Gray, Esq., Knows- 

 ley Menagerie, p. 48. 



In the eighth volume of the Asiatic Researches (Art. X. p. 487), 

 H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. gives a very detailed account of the Gayal, 

 compiled chiefly from the observations contributed by Dr. Roxburgh 

 and Mr. Macrae, of Chittagong. It contains much original and 

 interesting information respecting the habits, form, peculiarities, and 

 distribution of this animal, with a full enumeration of its native names 

 in the different provinces eastward of Bengal. 



Dr. F. (Buchanan) Hamilton, in the MS. notes which accompany his 

 series of drawings of Indian Mammalia, likewise describes the Gayal, 

 with many additional details, of which the following is an extract : 



" In the hills which form the eastern boundary of Bengal, this 

 animal is common, and it is also found in Ceylon and in the mountains 

 of Malabar, especially in those north from Paligaut. The rude 

 inhabitants of the hills on the frontiers of Bengal consider the Gyal 

 as their most valuable property. Its milk is remarkably rich, and its 

 flesh affords them their most luxurious feast. These people have tame 

 Gyals, which occasionally breed ; but the greater part of their stock is 

 bred in the woods, and caught ; after which, being a mild animal, it is 

 easily domesticated. The usual manner employed to catch the full- 

 grown Gyal is to surround a field of corn with a strong fence ; one 

 narrow entrance is left, in which is placed a rope with a running noose, 

 which secures the Gyal by the neck as he enters to eat the corn ; of 

 ten so caught, perhaps three are hanged by the noose running too 

 tight, and by the violence of their struggling. Young Gyals are caught 

 by leaving in the fence holes of a size sufficient to admit a calf, but 

 which excludes the full-grown Gyal ; the calves enter by these holes, 

 which are then shut by natives who are watching, and who secure the 

 calves. The Gyal usually goes in herds of from twenty to forty, and 

 frequents dry valleys, and the sides of hills covered with forests." 

 (Hamilton's MS.) 



