302 BOTIX.I. 



or Gauri-gaj, generally through India ; popularly Jangli khulga, i. «., 

 Jungle buffalo. — Bod, at Beonee. — Ban parrd, at Mundlah. — Gaoiya, 

 Mahr. — Kar-kona, Can. — Vana-go, quasi Ban-gmi, Beng. — Pera-maoo, 

 of Gonds in the South. — Katu-yeni, Tam. — Bison of sportsmen in Ma- 

 dras.* 



The Gaub. 



Descr. — Horns pale greenish with black tips, curving outwards, upwards 

 and slightly backwards, and finally inwards. General color dark chesnut- 

 brown or coffee-brown ; legs from the knee downwards white. 



Length 9^ to 10 feet ; height at shoulder 6 feet ; tail 34 inches. 



This magnificent auimal was described by Dr. Traill, in the Ed. Philos. 

 Journal, by General Hardwicke in the Zoological Journal, and by Geoffroy 

 St. HUaire, in the ]\Iem. iluseum d' Hist. Xat., all it appears from the 

 same animal, one killed in Central India, but Hodgson was the first who 

 fully defined its peculiarities, and the following detailed account is chiefly 

 taken from the published observations of Hodgson and Elliot. 



The skuU is massive, the froutals laj-ge, deeply concave, surmounted by 

 a large semi-cyUndric crest rising above tlie base of the horns. There are 

 13 pairs of ribs. The head is square, proportionally shorter than in the ox, 

 the bony frontal ridge is 5 inches above the frontal plane. The muzzle is 

 large and full, and the eyes small, with a full pupU of a pale blue color. 

 The whole of the head in, front of the eyes is covered with a coat of close 

 short hair of a light grayish-brown color, which below the eyes is darker, 

 approaching almost to black. The muzzle is grayish, and the hair is 

 thick and short. The ears are broad and fan-shaped. The neck is sunk 

 between the head and the back, is short, thick and heavy. Behind the 

 neck, and immediately above the shoulder, rises a fleshy gibbosity or hump 

 of the same height as the dorsal ridge. This ridge rises gradually as it 

 goes backwards and terminates suddenly about the middle of the back. 

 The chest is broad, the shoulder deep and muscular-, the forelegs short 

 ■with the joints very short and strong, and the arm exceedingly lai'ge and 

 muscular. The hair on the neck and breast and beneath is longer than on 

 the body, and the skin of the throat is somewhat loose giving the appear- 

 ance of a slight dewlap. The forelegs have a rufous tint behind and latter- 



• Colonel W. Campbell states that Modras sportsmen cnll this smimal a wild-bull and not a 

 bison, for which he rebukes them. Now I have always heard it called the bison, but in reality the 

 name wild-buU would be much more correctly applied to it. 



