232 



Catalogue of Mammalia 



[Oct. 



nated with natron or soda, which seems as essential to their well-doing 

 as common salt is to the domestic animal when kept in hilly tracts. 

 The chief food of the Bison seems to be the following grasses and 



plants, 



Yadanjdn cady 



Vallaum pilloo ...A species of Sacharurn, used for thatch. 



Odeserengan pilloo 



The cottay moottoo leaf Ricinus Communis. Castor oil Plant. 



Mullum pilloo Anthystiria polystachia, Itoxb. 



Canavum pilloo , Sorghum muticum. Wild Cholum. 



CI ee cum pilloo Broom g?*ass. (Aristida) . 



Cuttoo Cor angan leaf , . A species of Convolvulus. Ipomoza 



Stap/iylina ? 



but they will eat with avidity every species of gram commonlv culti- 

 vated on the hills or p:;dn^. as the r\ ots find to their cost. The Bison 

 particular!} is so fond of the avaray cottoy {Dolichos Lablab, Ainshe),* 

 when in blossom, that they will invade, and destroy fields of it, in open 

 daylight, in despite of any resistance the villagers can otter. In other 

 respects it is a very inoffensive animal, very rarely attacking any one it 

 encounters, excepi in the ease of a single bull driven from the herd. 

 S cb a one has occasionally been known to take up his location in some 

 dee-] bowery jungle, and deliberately quarter himself on the cultivation 

 of the adjacent villages. The villagers, though ready to assist Europeans 

 in the slaughter of Bison, will not themselves destroy them (the inviola- 

 bility of the cow extending to the Bison) ; and so bold does this free- 

 booting animal become in consequence, that he has been known to drive 

 the ryots from the fields, and deliberately devour the produce. But in 

 general it is a timid animal, and it is often difficult to get within gun-shot 

 of them. 



The period of gestation is with the Bison the same as with the do- 

 mesticated animal ; they drop their young in the months of September 

 and October. I once had one brought to me so young, the navel string 

 was still unseparated. I should think it was then about the size of a 

 common country cow's calf of four months old. It seems a slow grow- 

 ing animal. A calf I had for three years was evidently in every respect 

 still a mere calf. They seem very difficult to rear. I have known it at- 

 tempted at different ages, but never knew the animal to live beyond the 

 third year. Mr. Cockburn has tried it in vain, in its native climate, the 

 Sherwaroyah hills, and I have made the attempt at Sal em repeatedly. At 

 cue time I had five in my farm-yard ; one lived for three years : but this 

 one, u ith all the others, died suddenly in the same week from some dis- 

 ease, marked by refusal of food, running frt m the nose, and an abomina- 



* Country bean. 



