190 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
THE GAYAL 
The doubt whether this animal 
is found in a wild state has recently 
been considerably increased. It is 
well known in a semi-domesticated 
condition, in which it is kept by 
the tribes in and around the Assam 
Valley, where the wild gaur is also 
found. These herds roam during the 
day freely in the jungle, and return 
to be fed at the villages. It has 
been stated that wild gayal are 
enticed to join the tame herds by 
feeding them with balls of meal 
and salt; but these “wild” speci- 
mens may be only those which have 
belonged to or have descended from 
the domesticated herd. Gayal have 
been kept in England not only in 
the Zoological Gardens but in some 
parks, and crossed with English cattle. 
The offspring furnished excellent beef, but were rather wild and intractable. The horns of the 
gayal are thicker and flatter than those of the gaur, and placed lower on the skull and farther 
apart. The domesticated gayal stands lower than the gaur, but is a very massive animal. 
INDIAN HUMPED BULL 
The hump and dewlap mark the Oriental cattle. The ears are often more drooping 
than in this specimen 
THE BANTING 
The common wild ox of the Malay countries of Borneo, Java, Eastern Burma, and 
northwards, in Manipur resembles the European oxen rather more than does the gaur. In 
size the bulls sometimes reach 5 feet 9} inches. The old bulls are black, the younger bulls 
chocolate red, and the cows a bright reddish brown. The rump is marked with a large white 
patch, and all have white stockings from above the knees and hocks down to the hoofs. The 
tail is considerably longer than in the gaur, coming well below the hocks. As might be 
expected from its distribution, the size of this animal and the shape of the horns vary 
considerably in the different districts which it inhabits. In Borneo the horns often curve 
forwards; in Java they spread outwards. In the latter island large herds of this species are 
kept in a state of domestication. When wild, banting live in small herds, and in Burma 
feed from early morning until ten o’clock, when they retire into the jungle for shelter. The 
Manipur race is smaller than that of Burma (of which the males are not black), and the bulls 
have novi the white rump. 
THE YAK 
THE YAK is naturally an inhabitant of the very high plateaux and mountains of Tibet, 
where the climate is cold and the air excessively dry. Lower down on the Indian side of the 
Himalaya a smaller race is found domesticated, which is the only one able to stand the 
climate of India, or of Europe, where it is now kept in some parks as a curiosity. The tamed 
yaks are usually much smaller than the wild; these sometimes reach a weight of between 
1,100 and 1,200 lbs. In form they are long and low, very massive, and with hair almost 
entirely black; this falls off along the sides into a long sweeping fringe. The tail-is thickly 
tasselled with fine hair, and is employed by Indian princes for fly-flaps. The wild yak has 
large, massive black horns, curved upwards and forwards in the male. In Ladak and Chinese 
Tibet the yaks inhabit a desolate and barren country, in which their main food is a dry, 
