1890.] MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THE INDIAN GATJR. 593 



lumbar vertebrae sh.ort, the change in length taking place abruptly, so 

 that there is along the anterior half of the back, from the shoulders, 

 a high ridge which terminates suddenly about halfway down the 

 trunk. This character, however, is less marked in Bos sondaicus 

 than in the other two species, and the flattening of the horns is less 

 conspicuous in females than in males and is sometimes not to be 

 detected in cows of the species just named. 



All the species have a peculiar and characteristic coloration, the 

 old males being dark brown or almost black, the females and younger 

 males paler or reddish brown, the legs from just above the knee 

 and hocks downwards white or whitish. 



The three known forms may be thus distinguished : — 



A. No white caudal disk ; dorsal ridge Ligb. Females dark umber or sepia- 



brown. 

 a. Forehead very conraTe ; a high ridge, the upper border of which is very 

 conTex, between the horns. Horns curving much, the points turned in- 

 wards. Bos gaurus (the Gaxir). 

 h. Forehead nearly flat, no elevated ridge between the horns. Horns curving 

 but little, points not turned inwards. 



Bos frontalis (the Gayal or Mithan). 



B. A white caudal disk. Females reddish brown approaching chestnut. Doi'sal 



ridge much lower, termination inconspicuous. Forehead narrower and 

 skull longer than in the other speeie-s. Horns smaller and more cui-ved 

 than in either, the points turned in. Bos sondaicus (the Banteng). 



Coloured figures of the Gayal have already appeared in the 

 Society's ' Proceedings ' ( c? , 1866, pi. i. ; 2 and young, 1882, pi. x. 

 p. 233). Excellent coloured representations of the Banteng are to be 

 found in Sal. Miiller and Schlegel's ' Verliandelingen Nat. Gesch. 

 Ned. overz. Bez.' The accompanying figure^ (Plate XLTX.) of the 

 young male of Bos gaurus, now in the Gardens, is probably the first 

 taken from a living example, though many figures have been given in 

 illustration of Indian sporting and zoological works ". Not one of 

 these, however, appears to me to be a really good representation of the 

 animal, and I am doubtful whether the portrait of the young tame 

 bull now published will convey a correct idea of an adult Gaur in his 

 native haunts. The photograph of a dead Gaur (apparently a bull 

 just mature), which I now exhibit (see woodcut, p. 594), affords a 

 better conception of the animal than any drawing I have ever seen ^. 



A figure of the bull Gayal {Bos frontalis), which serves to show 

 the proportions, and to some extent the differences of that type, 

 is given in another photograph, kindly lent to me for the purpose 



^ This figure is copied from photographs taken in the Gardens by Major J. 

 Fortune Kott, F.Z.S., who has very kindlv allowed them to be used for the 

 Plate. 



'^ The most spirited and artistic is that by Wolf in Col. Walter Campbell's 

 ' My Indian Journal,' but it is incorrect in several points. Figures of it are 

 given in Forsyth's ' Highlands of Central India,' Sanderson's ' Thirteen Years 

 among the Wild Beasts of India,' Sterndale's ' Seonee,' the same authoi-'s 

 Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon,' and Homaday's 

 ' Two Years in the Jungle.' 



^ I am indebted for the loan of this photograph to Dr. V. Ball, C.B., and Mr. 

 A. B. Wynne. I regret to say that the original photographer is not known. 



