QAT^US GAUEUa, 301 



in a way that no other animal dare attempt, and can scramble up and down 

 rugged hills in a perfectly wonderful manner. The tails of the domestic 

 Yak, or chowries, are much used in India to keep off flies, &c. 



The next group is the Taurine, sub -divided by Blyth into — 1, the Zebus, 

 or humped domestic cattle ; 2, Tawus, the humpless cattle with cylin- 

 drical horns ; and 3, Gavcmis, the humpless cattle with flattened horns, 

 peculiar to South-eastern Asia. They have all 13 pairs of ribs. 



The common humped cattle of India belong to the Zebus. In many 

 parts of the country small herds of these have run wild. Localities are 

 recorded in Mysore, Oudh, Rohilkund, Shahabad, &c., and I have lately 

 seen and shot one in the Doab near Muzuffumuggur. These, however, 

 have only been wild for a few years. Near Nellore, in the Camatic, on the 

 sea-coast, there is a herd of cattle that have been wild for many years. 

 The country they frequent is much covered with jungle and intersected with 

 salt-water creeks and backwaters, and the cattle are as wild and wary as the 

 most feral species. Their horns were very long and upright, and they 

 were of large size. I shot one there in 1843, but had great difficulty in 

 stalking it, and had to follow it across one or two creeks. 



The genus Taurus contains the cattle of Europe with cylindrical horns, 

 including the feral race of Chillingham. 



The next group is that called by Blyth the flat horned Taurines. 



Gen. Qavmvs, H. Smith. 

 . Syn. Bibos, Hodgson. 



Char. — Head large, massive ; horns slightly flattened on one side (the 

 section not cylindrical), thick, remote, spreading ; tail short ; muffle small ; 

 dewlap small or wanting ; frontals concave ; spinous processes of the dorsal 

 vertebras greatly developed. Otherwise as in Taurus. 



This genus comprises three species peculiar to the Indian region or 

 South-eastern Asia, one of which is common in our province. 



238. Gavseus gaurus. 



Bos apud Ham. Smith. — Blyth, Cat. 506. — Bihos cavifrons, Hodgson. 

 — Elliot, Cat. 58, with figure. — Figd. Delessert, Souvenirs d'un Voyage 

 dans L'Inde. — Bos gour, Traill, Edin. Phil. Journal, and Hardwicke 

 Zool. Journal, 111-232, pi. VII. 2. — B. asseel, Housfield. — Gaur, H., 



