306 BOVINE. 



the night they start off with a loud hissing snort. The Gowlees say that 

 they see great numbers of bison when pasturing their herds in the neigh- 

 bouring forest. They describe them as very timid and watchful, more so 

 than any other wild animal, always reposing in a circle with their heads 

 turned outside ready to take alarm. 



The bison is generally driven towards the sportsman by a line of beaters, 

 he remaining concealed behind a tree. A wounded bison will occasionally 

 charge, and several fatal instances are recorded, but in general he will turn 

 and seek safety in flight. Hodgson says that " in the Tarai, the Gaur \v.ill 

 pursue his assailant, and if he chmb a tree will watch for a whole day ;" 

 but this account is evidently from native shikarees, and such conduct must 

 be perfectly exceptional. Mr. Elliot remarks that, " the pereevering 

 ferocity of the bison Of the Sub-Himalayan range,'' described by Mr. 

 Hodgson, " is quite foreign to the character of the animal in southern 

 forests.'' 



Various attempts have been made to rear the yomig Gaur, but they have 

 all failed, the young animal never living over his third year. Blyth had a 

 young calf at Calcutta procured near Singapore, which he shipped for 

 England, but it died on the voyage. An engraving of a photograph of this 

 calf was published in the " London Illustrated News.'' " It was tame and 

 tractable," says Blyth, yet full of life and frolic." The natives of Malabar, 

 according to Buchanan Hamilton, MSB., assert that the bison takes up 

 stones with his nostrils, and discharges them at their adversaries with the 

 force of a musket-ball, and the wound is always mortal ! 



The flesh of the Gaur is excellent if not too old, and the marrow bones 

 and tongue are delicacies always preserved by the successful sportsman. 



The Gayal or MitJwn, GavcBUS frontalis, is found in the hilly tracts to 

 the east of the Burrampooter, and at the head of the valley of Assam, the 

 Mishmi hills and their vicinity, probably extending north and east into the 

 borders of China. It is domesticated extensively and easily, and has bred 

 with the common Indian cattle. It is a heavy, cluinsy looking animal com- 

 pared with the Gaw; the wild animal similarly colored and with white legs- 

 It browzes more than the Gcur, and, unlike that, it has a small but distinct 

 dewlap. The domesticated race extends south as far as the Tippera and 

 Chittagong hills, and, northwards, has been seen grazing in company with 

 the Yak, close to the snows. It is better adapted for rocky and precipitous 

 ground than the Gaur. Gayals have often been taken alive to Calcutta. 

 The Bos sylhetanus, figd. by M. F. Cuvier, is a hybrid with the Zebu. 



