^00 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
height is stated, however, to be sometimes exceeded. 
A sportsman in the Nilgiri Hills of Madras, for 
instance, wrote to me that he had killed a bull which 
stood 6 feet lo inches at the shoulder, while Mr. 
Steuart Baker has stated that in Kachar gaur will 
stand as much as 7 feet, and Colonel Pollok has 
made a nearly similar statement in regard to the 
Burmese representative of the species. Such dimen- 
sions may appear incredible ; but it is difficult to 
refuse credence to the testimony of three independent 
witnesses, or to imagine that each of them had 
measured the height over the curves of the body 
instead of in a vertical line. Despite the alleged 
gigantic stature of the Nilgiri bull described by my 
correspondent, its horns were by no means especially 
large, the length on the outer curve being 29 inches, 
the maximum spread being 36I inches, and the basal 
girth 17I inches. The length from the muzzle to the 
root of the tail was 9 feet 5 inches, and that of the 
tail 2 feet 8 inches. This bull, which was very old 
and very thin, had a 12-bore bullet- wound in its 
shoulder of long standing. 
Cow gaur and steers are somewhat lighter in colour 
than adult bulls, and in some districts display a 
tendency to redness. Calves have been stated to 
show a dark stripe along the middle of the back. 
The range of the gaur comprises all the larger 
forest-regions of India from Cape Comorin to the 
foot of the north-eastern Himalaya, but does not 
include Ceylon. To the north-west the limits of the 
species in India are marked by the valley of the 
Narbada, while in the grass-jungles of the Ganges 
valley the species is met with only along the skirts 
of the Himalaya. Eastwards the range extends from 
