INDIAN WILD CATTLE. 3 
about six or seven years, rings begin to form at the base of the 
horns, and it is said one is added each year; if so, I must have shot 
bulls thirty-five or forty years ofage. They prefer hilly ranges with 
flat table-land at top, at an altitude of about 2500 ft.; but they 
have been killed up to 5000 ft., and traced up even higher. It is 
a wonderfully active animal for its size and bulk. They browse 
on young bamboo shoots, and are also fond of grazing on the 
young grass which springs up after the annual fires. They 
retire during the heat of the day, either to forests, or force their way 
into heavy patches of long elephant-grass, and lie there to escape 
the gadflies, which otherwise torment them dreadfully. As a rule 
they are inoffensive, but a solitary bull has been known to charge 
without provocation; if closely followed, all Gaur are apt to 
prove pugnacious. They are not difficult to kill; a bullet well 
placed behind the shoulder, in the middle of the shoulder, or 
behind the ear, or a raking shot forward, will account for one— 
I have known one paralyzed by a shot through the dorsal ridge, 
When alarmed their enormous strength and weight enable them 
to¢érash through tree and bamboo jungle as if they were but 
reeds. J have known them when alarmed to snort, and stamp 
with their feet before retiring. The tongue and marrow-bones 
are unexceptionable; the only portion of the beast fit to eat by 
Europeans is the middle layer on either side of the dorsal side, 
just below the hump; the tail makes very good ox-tail soup. 
Mr. Sanderson shot a Gaur in Assam, and as its name and 
that of the Gayal is “ Mithin,” he came to the conclusion that 
there were no wild Gayal; but although ‘‘ Mithin” is usually 
applied to both the Gaur and Gayal, yet, if pressed, the people 
will own to an “‘ Asseel Mithin”’ or true Gaur, and a “ Mithin” (or 
bastard Gaur) the Gayal. In a Natural History lately published* 
it has been asserted that the Gaur has been tamed, and that they 
are kept in captivity by natives on our North-Eastern Frontier, 
but this is altogether erroneous. ‘The very old bulls are either 
driven away from the herds, or retire and become solitaires, and 
are the best worth shooting, but they are wary, and difficult to 
* ‘The Royal Natural History,’ evidently misled by Mr. Sanderson. 
Although a Gayal at a distance looks very like a Gaur, the heads are totally 
dissimilar; the Gaur’s has a semi-cylindrical crest and a concave forehead ; 
the Gayal possesses neither. 
B2 
