6520 Notice of the various 



stated that " the breed of cattle [in Bali] is extremely fine, almost 

 every one of these beasts being fat, plump, and good-looking ; you 

 seldom, if ever, see a poor cow in Bali : it is a breed of a much larger 

 size than the common run of cattle in Java, and is obtained from a 

 cross with the wild cow [bull ?] with the same animal. They are 

 generally of a red colour, and all of them are white between the hind 

 legs and about the rump, so that I do not remember seeing one that 

 was not white-breeched. The people have no land expressly devoted 

 to grazing; but let their cattle eat their old stubble or fresh grass of 

 the rice-fields, after the crops have been taken off; and while the 

 rice is growing they let the cattle stray into the commons or 

 woods and pick up what they can get by the road-side. The rude 

 plough is drawn by two abreast, which the plougher drives witll one 

 hand while he guides the plough with the other." This account pretty 

 clearly indicates domesticated bantengs ; intermingled in blood, 

 perhaps, more or less, with the humped cattle ; though there is nought 

 to indicate such intermixture in the notice quoted, but rather that — as 

 in the case of the gayal — both wild and tame exist and interbreed 

 occasionally. However, we have the authority of Professor Van der 

 Hoeven that the Bos leucoprymnus of Quoy and Gaimard is a hybrid 

 banteng ; and we have seen a figure of a cow of this mixed race among 

 the Hardwicke drawings in the British Museum, which — as also in the 

 instance of the hybrid gayal we observed alive — partook much more of 

 the general aspect of what may be termed the jungle parent. Sir Stam- 

 ford Raffles, indeed, notices, in his ' History of Java,' that " the degene- 

 rate domestic cows [of that island] are sometimes driven into the forest 

 to couple with the wild banteng, for the sake of improving the breed." 

 In the Malayan peninsula, and in suitable districts of the extensive 

 region known as Indo-China, there is much reason to suspect that the 

 gaour, gayal and banteng are alike found. Thus Captain (since General) 

 Low, in his ' Dissertation on Penang and Province Wellesley,' mentions 

 "two species of the wild ox, or bison;" and again, he elsewhere 

 notifies, as inhabiting the same region, in addition to the " bison " or 

 gaour, "the wild ox, of the size of a large buffalo [probably the gayal] ; 

 and also a species [the banteng?] resembling in every respect the 

 domestic ox," — besides the buffalo. Again, Heifer, in his crude notes 

 on the Zoology of the Tenasserim provinces says, — " Of the ox kind, 

 the Bubalus arni and domesticus are both in a wild state [we do not 

 concede these to be two species] ; and of the bisons, the great gaurus 

 is rather rare, but Bison guodus [a misprint for gavceus]* very common ; 

 * The words may be written to look very much alike. 



