1837.] 



Memorandum on the Gaur and Gayal. 



225 



(B. Americanus), the type of the existing species, fifteen pairs of ribs — 

 those with fourteen pairs, the intermediate link, to which the two 

 above varieties and the Ydk would most probably belong — and those 

 with only thirteen pairs should be considered as the true Taurine 

 which would include all our domestic kine. 



Measurement of the Gaur's head (B. GaurusJ compared with the vp- 

 country bullock and the ivild buffaloe. 



Length of the head from the tip of the nose to 

 the summit of the crista, 



Breadth of the occipital ridge between the roots 

 of the horns, 



i across the forehead at the greatest projec- 

 tion of the orbits, 



at the narrowest part of the forehead, . . 



Depth of the occipital plane, from the great 

 foramen to the top of the crista, 



of the superior maxilla from its junction 



•with the nose of the alveolar edge of the molar 

 tooth, 



Breadth of the nasal fossa, 



Height of do. from the palatine bone, 



Length of the horn at its greatest curvature, .... 



Circumference at its base, 



Gaur. 



Ft. In. 

 1 11.3 



10.5 



10.0 

 8.5 



9.0 



5.7 

 3.7 



3.5 

 2 0.3 

 1 4.2 



Up-count. 

 Bullock. 



Ft. In. 



2 0.0 



7.5 



8.2 

 6.4 



4.2 



5.5 

 2.7 

 3.0 

 10.7 

 7.1 



Wild male 

 Buffaloe. 



Ft. 

 2 



In. 

 0.0 

 5.0 



10.5 



8.2 



6.0 



7.0 

 3.5 

 3.3 



? 

 > 



V. — Memorandum on the Gaur and Gayal. By Assistant Surgeon J. T. 

 Pearson, Cur. Mus. Asiatic Society. 



At the last meeting of the Society a paper was read, purporting to 

 be a notice on the head of the Gaur, by Mr. Evans. In that paper the 

 author stated tbat he went into the Museum of the Society and found 

 a specimen, consisting of the horns and part of the skull of a bovine 

 animal, marked " Bos Gaur," but which in reality belonged to the 

 Gayal, another large animal of the same group, a native of the forests 

 of Chittagong . It may be in the recollection of some of the members 

 here present, that, as the specimen in the Museum was labelled by 

 myself, 1 felt called upon to give my reasons for thinking it part of 

 the Gaur, and not of the Gayal ; whilst that exhibited by Mr. Evans 

 was perhaps the head of the latter animal, or a specimen of the other 

 sex of the former. I have since been able to consult several authors 

 on the same subject, and of collecting some information which I pur- 

 pose to lay before you. 



The first account of the Gaur I have met with is in the Memoirs of the 

 Museum of Natural History by M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire ; being 

 a translation of a notice by Major Roughsedge, sent by that gentle- 



