1890.] MR. W. T. BLANFORD ON THK INDIAN GAUR. 597 



has been distinctly recorded are Northern Pegu and Arrakan west of 

 Pegu ; but Blyth has shown (J. A. S. B. xxix. p. 294) that it pro- 

 bably occurs in the ranges east of Chittagong. It is common in 

 Tenasserim, and is probably found in Siam, the Malay Peninsula, and 

 Sumatra. It occurs in Java, Bali, and Borneo, and besides the 

 wild animals large herds exist in Java and perhaps in Sumatra in a 

 domesticated state. 



Bos frontalis. — I have left this to the last, as the question of the 

 range and even of the existence of the wild animal is disputed. The 

 Gayal or Mithan is kept tame by the hill-tribes on both sides of 

 the Assam valley and throughout the Chittagong hills as far south 

 as the neighbourhood of Akyab in Arrakan. According to the 

 earlier accounts, both wild and tame animals are found in the hill- 

 ranges south of Assam ; and an elaborate account was given in the 

 Linnean Transactions, vol. vii. p. 303, by Mr. Macrae (quoted by 

 Mr. Lambert) of the maimer in which the Kukis captured the wild 

 herds by the help of the tame Gayals. It is quite possible that this 

 story may have been devised by the inventive faculty of Mr. Macrae's 

 informant, though the account in itself has more innate probability 

 than most of the legends about animals that we owe to the imagina- 

 tion of the natives of India, whether civilized or not. Some recent 

 writers, and especially Mr. J. Sarbo ', who writes apparently with 

 good opportunities for knowing, declare that there is no such animal 

 as a wild Bos frontalis known, at all events in the country extend- 

 ing from Assam to Arrakan. Blyth, too ", only notices the wild 

 race as numerous in the Mishmi hills and other hill-ranges bordering 

 on Upper Assam, and states that it is the domestic race that extends 

 southward to near Akyab. 



It has even been suggested (though certfiinly not by Mr. Sarbo, 

 who clearly appreciates the distinction between the two) that 

 Bos frontalis is a domestic race of Bos gaurus. This is not im- 

 possible, but at the same time it is not, I think, a probable view, 

 because if it were the case, as both animals inhabit the same forests, 

 and as the tame herds of Bos frontalis are said to roam freely during 

 the day, merely returning at night to their owner's village, the two 

 would assuredly interbreed ; and it is incredible that the difference 

 between Bos gaurus and Bos frontalis should be so constant as it is, 

 and so very much more marked than in the case of the wild and 

 tame Buffalo, although the range of the tame animal in the latter case 

 is very far from coinciding with that of the wild race. Hybrids 

 between Bos frontalis and the humped cattle B. indicus are said to 

 be common ; but the skulls of B. frontalis brought from localities as 

 far apart as Upper Assam and the Chittagong hills appear, so far 

 as can be judged from the accounts given, to be similar to each 

 other, and to be all similarly distinguished from those of B. gaurus. 

 Further information on this point is desirable ; but as to the absolute 

 distinction of the two and the absence of intermediate forms we have 



1 P. Z. S. 1883, p. 143. 



^ Oat. Mauim. Mus. As. Soc. 1863, p. 162. 



