176 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
as straight, and the forehead as flat and short as 
in the gayal, although the horns themselves retain 
the flattening of the bases, the inward curvature of 
the tips, and the light colour characteristic of the 
typical gaur.^ 
The gayal was described as a distinct species by 
Mr. Lambert in the Ti^ansactions of the Linnean 
Society of London for 1804,^ under the name of 
B. frontalis ; and for many years it was recognised 
as such by the majority of naturalists. No un- 
doubtedly wild representatives of this so-called 
species have, however, been found, a supposed 
wild example from Tenasserim being in all prob- 
ability merely one of a herd which, like others, had 
escaped from partial captivity.^ 
Matters remained in this state of uncertainty till 
1900, when Mr. E. Steuart Baker, a tea-planter of 
Kachar, published an article in the Calcutta Asian^ 
in which he described certain skulls more or less 
intermediate between those of typical gaur and typical 
gayal. At the close of his arguments, he summed 
up by observing that " I am now forced to the 
conclusion that there is no difference of specific value 
between the two animals, such differences as do 
exist being principally, if not entirely, the result 
of domestication." 
This conclusion was greatly strengthened by my 
own discovery — already mentioned — as to the close 
resemblance between the heads of some examples 
^ See Lydekker, Game Animals of India, etc., London, 1907, p. 63. 
" Vol. vii. pp. 57 and 302. 
^ See Blanford, Fauna of British India — Mam7nalia, London, 
1891, p. 487. 
^ February 20 and 27. 
