446 



Asiatic Society. 



[No. 125. 



mard), though, as regards the last, I have the authority of Dr. Schlegelof Amsterdam 

 for asserting, that the individual described by these naturalists was a hybrid between 

 the Banteng and the domestic species, such as are very commonly produced in Java, 

 and especially in the Island of Bali, being trained there for domestic purposes. 

 Sir Stamford Raffles notices, in his * History of Java' (I. Ill), that "the degenerate 

 domestic cows [of that island,] are sometimes driven into the forest to couple with the 

 wild Banteng, for the sake of improving the breed" ; and in Moor's ' Notices of the 

 Indian Archipelago,' p. 95, we are informed that, in Bali, "the breed of cattle 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 from the Wild Cow, 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 recollect seeing one that was not 

 white-breeched. The people have no land expressly devoted to grazing, but let their 

 cattle eat the old stubble, or fresh grass of the rice-fields, after the crops have been 

 taken off; and while the grass is growing, they let the cattle stray into the commons, 

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

 drawn by two oxen abreast, which the ploughman drives with one hand, while he 

 guides the plough with the other." There is a figure of a hybrid half-Banteng Javanese 

 Cow in the collection of drawings bequeathed by the late Major-General Hardwicke 

 to the British Museum, and of which I possess a rough copy. 



The colour of the pure Banteng is similar to that of the Gaour and Gayal, or earthy- 

 brown passing into black, with the four limbs white from the mid-joint downward, in 

 addition to which this species has constantly a large oval white patch on each buttock, 

 whence the name leucoprymnus bestowed by M. M. Quoy and Gaymard. Sir Stamford 

 Raffles mentions, that " a remarkable change takes place in the appearance of this 

 animal after castration, the colour in a few months becoming invariably red" (Hist. 

 Java, I. III). Its frontal ridge has little tendency to become elevated; and the 

 following is a description of the finer of two frontlets of the male in the Museum of this 

 Society, presented by Prince William Henry of the Netherlands (vide J. A. S. VI. 

 987). Horns very rugous at base, flattened as in the Gaour and Gayal, but in a less 

 degree, and somewhat similar in flexure to those of the Gaour, though approaching more 

 in this respect to those of the Cape Buffalo, of a black colour, and twenty inches and 

 a half long over the curve, fourteen and a half round at base, their widest portion thirty- 

 five inches apart measuring outside, and tips returning to twenty-seven inches ; at 

 base they are six inches asunder across the vertex, widening anteriorly. According to 

 Dr. Solomon Muller, " the Banteng is found in Java in territories which are seldom 

 visited by man, as well in the forests of the plains and of the coast, as in those of the 

 mountains, where it is pretty common. We have likewise seen traces of it in Borneo, 

 and have even received a calf from the Dujaks about a month old. According to 

 Raffles it is also found in Bali ; but in Sumatra it does not appear to exist." Sir 

 Stamford Raffles states, that " it is found chiefly in the forests eastward of Pasuran, 

 and in Bali, though it also occurs in other parts of Java." 



To the same distinguished statesman, we are indebted for the following piece of 

 information respecting the domestic cattle of Sumatra: — " There is a very fine breed 

 of cattle peculiar to Sumatra, of which I saw abundance in Menangkabu when I 





