Species of Bovine Animals. 



6511 



section would be somewhat ovate. Towards their tips the horns are 

 rounded, and end in a sharp point. The eyes resemble those of the 

 common [humped] ox ; the ears are much larger, broader, and blunter 

 than those of that animal.* 



" The neck is very slender near the head ; at some distance from 

 which a dewlap commences, but this is not so deep, nor so much un- 

 dulated, as in the Bos zebu or Indian ox.f 



" The dewlap is covered with strong longish hair, so as to form a 

 kind of mane on the lower part of the neck ; but this is not very con- 

 spicuous, especially when the animal is young." J 



If we remember rightly, F. Cuvier's figure (copied from a drawing 

 sent by Duvaucel) represents the dewlap as unusually large. In a 

 carefully executed drawing of a fine bull, which was taken under our 

 immediate superintendence from the living animal, the skin is shown 

 to be a little pendent beneath the lower jaw, but not so at the throat, 

 below which again it descends and forms one obtuse angle in front of 

 the chest, and another between the knees, or rather just anteriorly to 

 the knees and a little above them. In this individual the tail-tuft 

 reached a little below the hocks. Buchanan Hamilton continues: — 

 " The tail is covered with short hair, except near the end, where it 

 has a tuft like that of the common ox ; but, in the gayal, the tail de- 

 scends no lower than the extremity of the tibia. 



" The legs, especially the fore ones, are thick and clumsy ; the 

 false hoofs are much larger than those of the zebu ; the hinder parts 

 are weaker in proportion than the fore hand, and, owing to the con- 

 traction of the belly, the hinder legs — although, in fact, the shortest 

 — appear to be the longest. 



" In place of the hump, which is situated between the shoulders of 

 the zebu, the gayal has a sharp ridge, which commences on the hinder 

 part of the neck, slopes gradually up till it comes over the shoulder- 

 joint, then runs horizontally almost a third part of the length of the 



* But they are not so broad as those of B. Taurus. Like those of the gaour, we 

 should term them broadly ovate. 



f From the name above given, it is evident that Buchanan Hamilton regarded his 

 Bos Zebu as distinct from B. Taurus. 



X With regard to dewlap, it may be remarked that the humped bull has this pre- 

 posterously developed occasionally, almost reaching to the ground. Such a bull is 

 figured, as we remember, in one of the drawings bequeathed by General Hardwicke to 

 the British Museum; and we have seen others like it. The large up-country cattle 

 have also generally much pendent skin, and, what is curious, not unfrequently a very 

 considerable appearance of preputial skin in the cows; but this nevertheless cannot 

 be truly preputial, for reasons unnecessary to discuss here. 



