CHAPTER IX 
THE EXISTING KINDS OF WILD CATTLE 
Although, as shown in an earlier chapter, the 
European aurochs became extinct in the first half 
of the seventeenth century, truly wild cattle have 
survived in all the great continents of the world, 
exclusive of South America (and, of course, Australia), 
as well as in some of the islands of the Indo-Malay 
region. In Europe, for instance, the bison lingers, 
in a protected state in the forest of Bielowitza, in the 
Russian government of Grodno, and in a perfectly 
wild condition in the valleys of the Caucasus. India 
is the home of that splendid beast the gaur, and 
likewise of the wild Asiatic buffalo. East of the Bay 
of Bengal, in Burma, Siam, Java, etc., the gaur is 
accompanied or replaced by the bantin or tsaine ; 
while the Philippines possess a small wild buffalo 
known as the tamarao, and Celebes is inhabited by 
a still smaller member of the same group — and in 
fact the smallest of all wild cattle — locally called the 
anoa. The heart of the Highlands of central Asia is 
the chosen dwelling-place of the yak ; and on the 
other side of Bering Strait we approach the domain 
of the American bison. Africa is inhabited solely 
by the African buffalo, with its numerous, and in 
some cases strikingly different, local races. 
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