Horns 



move about in the hilly, precipitous country, such 

 as is to be found in the Central Provinces and 

 Western Ghats, for instance, with ease, climb- 

 ing up and down narrow stony paths with all 

 the apparent facility of a goat. They are pos- 

 sessed of tremendous powers of endurance, and 

 when thoroughly frightened will undertake im- 

 mense treks. 



Burke gives the average horn measurement as 

 2 feet 7 inches, the maximum at 41J inches. 

 Colonel PoUok would appear to hold the record 

 with 6 feet io|- inches. Anything over 40 inches 

 is seldom met with now-a-days. 



The period of gestation appears to be still a 

 matter of dispute. Breeding is said to take place 

 in the cold weather ; and in the Peninsula of 

 India, according to Blanford, calves are mostly 

 born in August or September, and a few early in 

 April, May, or June. 



The animals are apparently subject to many of 

 the diseases of domestic cattle, and a kind of 

 anthrax at times decimates them, as was 

 the case in Mysore in 1903, when both bison, 

 sambhar, and elephants were found dead in the 

 jungles in considerable numbers. 



The mithan is similar to the gaur, its most 

 marked difference being in the very different skull 

 and horns it possesses as shown here. The head 

 is shorter with shorter nasala ; the forehead quite 

 flat, and the transverse outline of the vertex 



105 



