1867.] Mr. W. T. BlanfonVs Zoological Notes. 195 



ridge is substituted. A great addition to the height is also easily- 

 made by pulling out the foreleg as the animal lies, and by measuring 

 from the toe instead of from the heel, especially if the cord be curved 

 a little over the side. Another plan I have lately heard of is to 

 stretch a tape from one forefoot to the other over the back, and to 

 take half the resulting length as the height. When it is remembered 

 that the measurements are made by sportsmen, not by naturalists, it 

 will easily be understood that all should be taken cum grano and that 

 many may be rejected altogether. My own impression is that it is 

 as rare to find a gaur exceeding about 17 J hands (5 ft. 10 in.) as it is 

 to meet with a tiger above 10 feet in length. Larger animals do 

 undoubtedly exist, but they are rare, and it is, I think, doubtful if 

 20 hands (6 ft. 8 in.) is ever reached. To judge from all the horns 

 I have seen, the gaur of no part of India proper attains a larger size 

 than in the Satpoora hills. 



The gaur is called ran pado in Goozerat and ran hila by the Bheels 

 of Kandesh, both words, like the name commonly used throughout 

 Central and Southern India, ran or jungli hym, meaning wild buffalo, 

 which is just as absurd, as the term bison applied by Anglo-Indians. 

 I have even heard the name ama, which of course means the wild 

 buffalo, applied to the gaur ; and the correct name is rarely used, in 

 Central India at least, except in the neighbourhood of districts where 

 wild buffaloes occur. 



5. The wild buffalo, Bos (Bubalus) buffelus. 



I think Blyth is in error in restricting the range of the aboriginally 

 wild buffalo to the Ganges valley and Assam. (Cat. Mam. As. Soc. 

 p. 1G8). Wild buffaloes are completely unknown throughout Western 

 and Southern India, but they are common on the east coast, to some 

 distance south of Cuttack at least, and throughout the jungles of 

 Mandla, Kaipur and Sumbalpur, extending west as far as the Wein a 

 Gunga and Pranhita, and south to the Godavery ; a few herds may 

 occur beyond these limits, but they are very rare. My information is 

 derived partly from my own observation, partly from various sportsmen 

 who have seen and killed the animal in these districts ; and I have 

 myself seen the spoils. All that I have seen belong to the B. speiroceros 

 race of Hodgson, with horns curving from the base. My reasons for 

 thinking all these animals aboriginally wild, and and not feral, are — 

 1st, the perfect symmetry and immense size of their horns. 2nd, the 



