226 Memorandum on the Gaur and Gay ah [March, 



man to M. Euge'ne Dbsbassayns, son of the Governor of the French 

 possessions in India, and by him to M, Geoffroy Saint Hilaire. 

 In this paper the only passage that bears upon the point in question, 

 the form of the forehead, is the following, which I have retranslated, 

 but which you will also shortly hear in the original : — " Its head has 

 almost all the characters of that of our domestic bull, but the frontal 

 bone appears more projecting and more elevated." 



The next account is a more satisfactory one, contained in a paper 

 by Dr. Thomas Stewart Traill in the 11th volume of the Edin- 

 burgh Philosophical Journal; drawn up from a MS. journal of the 

 same hunting-party mentioned in that furnished by Major Rough- 

 sedge to M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, which took place at Myn Pat 

 in Sergujah ; and from the personal explanations of Captain Rogers, 

 who was of that party, and who is stated to have paid considerable 

 attention to the quadrupeds of India. You recollect the remarkable 

 concavity of the forehead of Mr. Evans's specimen, and will be able to 

 satisfy yourselves if that concavity accords with the projecting fron- 

 tal bone spoken of above, and with the following description by Dr. 

 Traill. He says — " The form of the Gaur is not so lengthened as 

 that of the Urna. Its back is strongly arched, so as to form a pretty 

 uniform curve, from the nose to the origin of the tail, when the ani- 

 mal stands still. This appearance is partly owing to the curved form 

 of the nose and forehead, and still more to a remarkable ridge, of no 

 great thickness, which rises six or seven inches above the general 

 line of the back, from the last of the cervical, to beyond the middle of 

 the dorsal vertebra?, from which it is gradually lost in the outline of 

 the back." Now it is evident the above language could not be ap- 

 plied to an animal with a concave forehead, like that in Mr. Evans's 

 specimen ; where the concavity instead of being but little below the 

 rest of the bone, as it is in the domestic cow, made, as you saw, a 

 deep fossa, forming a very remarkable feature ; and which could not 

 belong to an animal whose form exhibited along the back " a pretty 

 uniform curve from the nose to the origin of the tail," and which 

 " appearance is partly owing to the curved form of the nose and 

 forehead :" for a concave forehead, like that in Mr. Evans's specimen, 

 would break the uniformity of the curve, instead of help to form it. 



Again, Dr. Traill apparently in the very phrase, translated by 

 M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, says : — " The character of the head 

 differs little from that of the domestic bull, excepting that the outline 

 of the face is more curved, the os frontis more solid and projecting." 

 This, no doubt, was also the case in the Society's specimen of the face, 



