EXISTING KINDS OF WILD CATTLE 199 
this supply of fresh meat very convenient for feed- 
ing construction gangs, and good buffalo-hunters, who 
were not afraid to face the hostile Indians who 
hovered about, were in great demand. In 1867 I 
began killing buffalo for the Kansas Pacific, and 
shot nearly 5000 of them to feed the labourers who 
were building that line on to Denver. It was from 
them that I was named Buffalo Bill." 
It is purely and simply a case of Vce victis ! 
The handsomest of all the living species of wild 
cattle is undoubtedly the gaur, or Indian bison, as it 
is so generally called by Anglo-Indian sportsmen, 
the Bos gaurus of naturalists ; its stature, fine pro- 
portions, stately carriage, noble head, magnificent 
incurving, olive-green, black-tipped horns, blue eyes, 
and the short, sleek olive or blackish brown coat of 
both sexes all combining to render it a superb and 
peerless member of the ox tribe. The gaur of India 
is an easily recognised and unmistakable animal, 
some of its leading features being the highly-arched 
ridge between the horns, the concave profile of the 
forehead, which from its greyish hair stands out in 
marked contrast to the rest of the coat of the head 
and body, the bold and abruptly-ending fleshy ridge 
on the withers, the relatively short tail, scarcely 
reaching the hocks, and the white "stockings" to 
the legs. 
The gaur appears to be the biggest of all the more 
typical wild cattle, although there is still some un- 
certainty as to the maximum height attained by the 
bulls. As a rule, they do not exceed from 5 feet 
5 inches to 5 feet 6 inches at the shoulder, but there 
seems no doubt that a stature of from 6 feet to 6 feet 
4 inches is occasionally reached. Even this great 
