Species of Bovine Animals. 



6477 



different from the gaour, and we take it to be the skull of a bull 

 (divested of its horns) of the Burmese T'sain or T'soing, from the 

 Keddah coast. 



But the gaour is nevertheless plentiful in the Burmese countries, 

 and all down the Malayan peninsula ;* and since we last treated of 

 the bovines, we happen to have obtained possession of a fine healthy 

 yearling bull-calf of the species, who is just now quietly chewing the 

 cud within a dozen yards of where we are writing, brought (together 

 with a Malayan tapir) from Singapore, — as gentle and tractable a little 

 fellow (little in comparison with the full-grown beast, not otherwise), 

 as can be imagined, albeit full of life and friskiness occasionally, that 

 will have started on his voyage to England before this notice meets the 

 eyes of our readers, who may look out for a sketch of him ere long in 

 the ' Illustrated London News.' 



The gaour is about the largest of existing bovines, a fine bull 

 standing fully 19 hands from the summit of his elevated spinal ridge,f 

 with a huge ponderous body, longish limbs, little trace of dewlap, a 

 broad head, with high upturned frontal ridge occasioning a hollowness 

 of the wide forehead, and a thorough Roman nose ; eyes full and 

 lustrous ; the ears rather large ; tail scarcely reaching to the hocks ; 

 and the horns of the bull out with rather a backward curvature, and 

 passing round inwards at the tips, with commonly a slight inclination 

 backwards at the extreme tips, which in general is much stronger in 

 the cows, — excepting in this respect, some cow-horns differ little from 

 those of the bull, save in being much smaller; but others we have seen, 

 more slender, and curving very much backward at the tips, as com- 



* What was Aristotle's wild bull of Persia with depressed horns ? The extinct 

 Guavera of Ceylon, noticed by Knox, refers clearly to the species now under consider- 

 ation. A correspondent of the old ' Bengal Sporting Magazine' (for 1835, p. 217), 

 writing from the southern Mahratta country, remarks that " the ' bison ' of this jungle 

 differ materially from those of the Mahableshwa Hills. The latter is merely a blue 

 cow, of the colour of a buffalo, but of large size. The regular ' bison ' of Dandelly is 

 a tremeudous animal, the highest point being the shoulder." We have little faith in 

 any such distinction ; and merely suppose that the writer had seen a big bull in one 

 locality, and not in the other. 



f In the ' India Sporting Review,' new series, No. III. p. 329, we read of" a most 

 splendid fellow covered with scars from fighting, his teeth gone from age, and most 

 magnificent horns. He measured 20 hands 1^ inch without measuring his hoof." In 

 the same periodical, No. V. p. 210, " a splendid fellow " is mentioned, who " measured 

 20 hands and 1\ inches. His horns," remarks the writer, " were the finest I have ever 

 seen, either of my own shooting, or any one else's." In the preceding page " a fine 

 young bull is mentioned, " measuring 18| hands at the shoulder ; horns not very 

 large." 



