ORDER RUMINANTIA. 399 



wooded localities to the plain or the low lands, live in small 

 troops, and have a groaning voice. The Gaw-Koitah of the 

 Persians is probably this animal. 



The Gaur*. (B. Gaurus.) The next in order of this 

 group may be placed a species of Bison, which, from all 

 accounts, appears to be among the largest now living ; and 

 although in Indian phraseology the word Buffalo has 

 been used, no doubt can exist respecting the propriety of 

 placing it in this section ; indeed the Gaur may be no 

 other than the true Bison, though from certain testimonies 

 we are inclined to regard it as an intermediate species. 



In the Mem. du Mus. (THist. Nat., vol. ix., a notice was 

 published, purporting to be an extract from an English 

 account of a hunting excursion in the mountains of Mine- 

 po?it (Midnapoor ?), vaguely indicated as situate one hun- 

 dred leagues from the sea between the coast of Coromandel 

 and the head of the bay of Bengal, and describing an ox of 

 gigantic stature under the name of. Gaour, with the spi- 

 nous apophyses of the vertebrae of the withers projecting 

 externally ! One of these was slain, and measured five feet 

 eleven inches nine lines at the shoulders ; eleven feet eleven 

 inches nine lines from the nose to the end of the tail, and 

 seven feet seven inches nine lines in circumference. In 

 another specimen the head exhibited nearly all the cha- 

 racters of the Domestic Ox, but the forehead was more 

 arched and raised ; the horns, strong and rough, were not 

 bent back as in the Buffalo ; the top of the forehead was 



* This name of Gaour, or Ghau-ur, originating in Central India, 

 shews how far the root ur, urus, is extended. Gaur, a giant; 

 Ghaur-ur, the gigantic, ancient, mysterious, terrible Ox : ur is 

 sometimes an epithet of the Lion in the east, and of the Bear in the 

 west, and used as the synonyme of the proper name, no doubt be- 

 cause in the primitive root ; nobility, generosity, mischief, slaughter, 

 are all secondary significations of ur. Gor appears mistranslated 

 wild ass in the Schahnamed, where Rostun kills one as large as an 

 elephant. 



