I860.] On the Flat-homed Taurine Cattle of S. U. Asia. 301 



wet season they ascend to the hills." Hence we gather that the 

 Banteng is essentially a grazer, like the Gaour, instead of being chiefly a 

 browser like the Gayal, which never descends from its mountain forests. 

 Another writer in the same work states that, in Bali, " the breed 

 of cattle is extremely fine, almost every one of these beasts being 

 fat, plump, and good-looking ; you seldom, if ever, see a poor cow in 

 Bali : it is a breed of a much larger size than the common run of 

 [humped] cattle in Java, and is obtained from a cross with the wild 

 cow [bull ?] with the same animal. They are generally of a red 

 colour, and all of them are white between the hind-legs and about 

 the rump, so that I do not remember seeing one that was not white- 

 breached. The people have no land expressly devoted to grazing ; 

 but let their cattle eat their old stubble or fresh grass of the rice- 

 fields, after the crops have been taken off; and while the rice is 

 growing, they let the cattle stray into the commons or woods, and 

 pick up what they can get by the road-side. The rude plough is 

 drawn by two abreast, which the plougher drives with one hand 

 while he guides the plough with the other." This account pretty 

 clearly indicates domesticated Bantengs ; intermingled in blood, per- 

 haps, more or less, with the humped cattle ; though there is nought 

 to certify such intermixture in the notice quoted, but rather that 

 — as in the case of the Gayal — both wild and tame exist and inter- 

 breed occasionally. However, we have the authority of Professor 

 Yan der Hoeven that the Bos leucojprymnos of Quoy and Gaymard 

 is a hybrid Banteng ; and there is a figure of a cow of this mixed 

 race among the Hardwieke drawings in the British Museum, which 

 — as also in the instance of a hybrid Gayal that I saw alive — partook 

 much more of the general aspect of what may be termed the jungle 

 parent. These hybrid Bantengs are known as ' Bali cattle' at 

 Singapore. 



The Bev. F. Mason, in his ' Notes on the Fauna, Flora, &c, of the 

 Tenasserim Provinces' (1852), remarks that " a small Ox from the 

 Shan country is brought down sometimes in considerable numbers, 

 which resembles in its form the English rather than the Indian Ox, 

 but is probably derived from the wild race. Occasionally a young- 

 wild Ox is domesticated, and brought under the yoke." This notice 

 should have been more explicit. Crawfurd remarks — " The Ox is 



