6420 



Notice of the various 



in his ' Notes on the Fauna, Flora, &c., of the Tenasserim Provinces' 

 (1852), remarks that " a small ox from the Shan country is brought 

 clown sometimes in considerable numbers, which resembles in its form 

 the English rather than the Indian ox, but is probably derived from 

 the wild race. Occasionally a young wild ox is domesticated, and 

 brought under the yoke." By the latter, we suspect he means the 

 tsain, a flat-horned species akin to the banteng ; and by the former 

 the indigenous round-horned species before referred to. It is to 

 be regretted that the last is so very vaguely brought to notice.* 



To the above may be tacked Sir Stamford Raffle's notice of the 

 domestic cattle of Sumatra. " There is a very fine breed of cattle 

 peculiar to Sumatra, of which I saw abundance at Menang Kabu, when 

 I visited the capital of that country in 1818. They are short, compact, 

 well-made animals, without a hump, and almost without exception of 

 a light fawn-colour, relieved with white. The eyes are large and 

 fringed with long white lashes. The legs are delicate and well-shaped. 

 Among all that I saw 1 did not observe any that were not in excellent 

 condition, in which respect they formed a striking contrast to the 

 cattle generally met with in India. They are universally used in agri- 

 culture, and are perfectly domesticated. This breed appears to be 

 quite distinct from the (flat-horned) banteng (Bos soudaicus) of Java 

 and the more eastern islands. — 4 Transactions of the Linnean Society,' 

 vol. xiii. p. 267. 



There is a wild race of some kind in the Island of Celebes, which 

 has not yet been scientifically described. In an account of the pro- 

 vince of Minahassa, published in the ' Journal of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago,' vol. ii. p. 831, we find it thus noticed : — "Wild cows are also 

 found here, principally in the higher parts of the mountains ; but they 

 bear little resemblance to the banteng of Java ; are below the middle 

 size, yet possess, notwithstanding, an incredible strength." This is 

 vague enough, but undoubtedly refers to some unknown quadruped, — 

 bovine most probably, but not likely to appertain to our present sec- 



* There is a horn powder-flask in the museum of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 

 which is cylindrical, and of true semi-circular hisontine curvature, which was brought 

 from the Shan" country by the late Mr. Landers, who assured the writer that he had 

 seen (had a good distinct view oi) a true shaggy bison, "resembling- the American 

 bison," in the pine forests there. On our expressing doubt, he said that he possessed 

 a horn of it made into a powder-flask, and afterwards presented this to the museum, 

 being the specimen above noticed : certainly it has every character of a true bisontine 

 horn, but might perhaps be that of a wild taurine of the present group. The mere 

 conversion of it into a powder-horn, as a sort of trophy, is rather in favour of 

 its having belonged to a wild bull of some kind. 



