HUMPED CATTLE OF ASIA AND AFRICA i 5 3 
as the missing ancestral type. So long ago as 1878 
Professor Riitimeyer/ from the comparison of a skull 
of the Galla humped cattle with those of the Indian 
gaur and the Javan bantin, expressed the opinion 
that the zebu was certainly derived from that Indo- 
Malay group of cattle, and most probably from the 
bantin itself Since that date the range of the 
bantin {B. sondaicus has been found to extend into 
upper Burma, where the species is represented by 
a special local race {B. s. birmanicus) ; and an 
examination of a large series of skulls and heads 
leads me to conclude that Riitimeyer was probably 
right in regarding this species — or possibly a nearly 
allied extinct type — as the ancestor of the zebu. 
To point out the characters in the structure of the 
skull on which Riitimeyer relied when expressing 
this opinion, would involve too much technical matter 
for a work like the present ; and attention may 
therefore be restricted to certain other points. The 
bantin, like the gaur, is characterised by the presence 
of an elevated ridge on the withers, extending nearly 
half-way along the back, this ridge being formed 
by the tall spines of the vertebrae of the fore-part 
of the trunk. Such a ridge might apparently be 
converted without difficulty into the hump of the 
zebu, especially if the spines of the vertebra were 
shortened. Comparison in this respect cannot, how- 
ever, be carried further, as skeletons are not available. 
In many bull bantin — both Javan and Burmese — 
the horns, which have the same nearly cylindrical 
section as those of the zebu, show a contour and 
double curvature somewhat similar to that of the 
1 "Die Kinder der Tertiar-Epoche," Abh. schweiz. paldontologischen 
Gesellschaft, vol. v. pp. 177, 178. 
