1839] 



in the Southern Maliratta Country. 



227 



forests. It is comparatively rare, and is becoming more so, every day. 

 The country people are apt to confound it with the Sambur ; but the lo- 

 calities frequented by the two animals are totally different. The Sam- 

 bur is impatient of heat, and requires shade and deep cover, the Neelgao 

 is indifferent to the sun, and in the open plains, at noon, it requires a 

 good horse and a long run to come up >with it. I had a tame female of 

 each kind for a long time in the same paddock. The Neelgao used to 

 drop on its knees to feed, and attacked and defended itself by butting 

 with the head. The Sambur on the other hand never knelt, and when 

 irritated, used to rise on its hind legs, and strike with the fore-feet. In 

 Goozerat the Neelgao is found in the open, grassy plains ; the herd 

 marches in aline, the bull leading with 8 or 10 cows following. 



58.— -Bos (Bibos) Cavifrons, Hodgson— Journal Asiatic Society Ben- 

 gal, vol. VI. (1837) pp. 223, 499, 745. 



Bos Gaurus, Griffiths. — Gour, Geoff. 



Kar kona, Canarese.... °Wa) ° } ^9 



Jungli khoolga, D ekhani g~ 



Gaviya, Mahratta. ,-. 



It is somewhat remarkable that one of the largest animals of the In- 

 dian Fauna, frequenting all the extensive forest tracts from Cape Como- 

 rin to the Himalayas, should only have been indicated distinctly, within 

 the last two years. I have seen specimens from Tinnevelly,and likewise 

 from the whole range of the Syhadree mountains up to Mahableshwar, 

 and I know r that the animal has been killed near Vellore, in the Sher- 

 waroyah hills near Salem, at Aseergurh, in Kandes, Rajahmundry, and I 

 doubt not that it will likewise be found in all the deeper recesses of the 

 eastern ghauts, and on the banks of all the great rivers passing through 

 them. An imperfect cranium which seems to belong to a female of this 

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

 Bison from Kuddah, Straits of Malacca, presented by Lieutenant Colo- 

 nel Frith, Madras Artillery." 



The following memoranda were made in 1833 in the Southern Mah- 

 ratta Country at a time when I had frequent opportunities of seeing the 

 animal. " It is called Gaviya by the Mahrattas, Jungli khoolga and 

 TJrna by the Mahommedans (though it has not the slightest affinity with 

 the buffalo to which both of these names apply), and Karhona by the 

 Canarese, which is of similar import, from Kadu, a forest, and Kona a 

 buffalo. 



It differs also very remarkably from the common ox, and though it 

 approaches considerably more to the descriptions of the bison, the name 



