6476 



Notice of the various 



be commonly enough seen in the Indian buffalo, of the bubaline series, 

 regular forest animals, that browse more or less, the gayal especially 

 being much given to crop the leaves of trees and shrubs, while the 

 gaour is more of a grazer. Very gentle creatures, where not persecuted ; 

 and most readily tamed ; inhabiting the upland forests of tropical and 

 juxta-tropical Asia, where they pasture in the more open glades ; and 

 assimilating in their general habits to other taurines, and in no respect 

 to the buffalos, though the gayal is very bubaline in figure and pro- 

 portions. Three species are now well known and thoroughly esta- 

 blished, and a fourth less satisfactorily — if it really constitute a fourth, 

 which may be doubted ; but the balance of evidence is in favour of 

 its being a distinct species from the banteng of the Archipelago, how- 

 ever nearly akin. 



The names Bibos and Gavseus have been proposed for the group ; 

 or rather the former has immediate reference to the gaour in 

 particular, which is especially characterized by its high spinal 

 ridge. 



The gaour (Bos gaurus, Col. Ham. Smith ; B. gour, Traill ; 

 B.aculeatus, Wagler ; Bibos cavifrojis, Hodgson ; B. asseel, Horsfield 

 (founded on the head of a cow in the India House Museum) ; Ganri 

 Gau or Gaur, Nipal (Hodgson) : Jungli Khoolga, Dukhani ; Kar 

 Kona, Kanarese, and Gaviya, Mahratta (Elliot) ; As'l Gayal of the 

 Hindus in Chittagong, and Seloi of the Kukis (Macrae) ; Gayal of 

 Cuttak sportsmen ; Pyoung of Burmese (Phayre) ; Sapi titan (literally 

 " wild cow") of the Malays of the peninsula. 



" It is somewhat remarkable,' 1 observed the Hon. Walter Elliot in 

 1839," that one of the largest animals of the Indian Fauna, frequenting 

 all the extensive forest- tracts from Cape Comorin to the Himilayas, 

 should only have been indicated distinctly within the last two years. 

 I have seen specimens from Tinivelli, and likewise from the whole 

 range of the Syhadri mountains, up to Mahableshwa, and I know that 

 the animal has been killed near Vellore, in the Shirwaroya hills near 

 Salem, at Asirgurh, in Kandesh, Rajamundri, and I doubt not that it 

 will likewise be found in all the deeper recesses of the Eastern Ghats, 

 and on the banks of all the great rivers passing through them. An 

 imperfect cranium, which seems to belong to a female of the species, 

 in the United Service Museum, is labelled thus, — " Head of a Bison 

 from Keddah, Straits of Malacca." We happen to have drawings of 

 the specimen referred to, and have published copies of them, showing 

 the skull in three aspects of view, in the 6 Asiatic Society's Journal,' 

 vol. xi. p. 470 ; from which it will be seen that the species is quite 



