2 54 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
described in 1881 by Mr. P. Thomas.^ From the 
European aurochs this race is stated by its describer 
to differ by its shorter forehead, the more downward 
and less forward curvature of the bony cores of the 
horns, and the longer and more slender limbs. A 
more or less nearly allied species is the great extinct 
ox (B. nainadicus) of the superficial, or Pleistocene, 
gravels of the valley of the Narbada, in central India. 
Typically the enormous horn-cores are subcylindrical, 
and directed to a great extent forwards in aurochs- 
fashion ; but in some instances they are compressed 
at the base, and thus approximate to those of the 
gaur, thereby suggesting that the fossil species was 
in some degree intermediate between the aurochs 
and the gaur and bantin group. The Pleistocene 
deposits of India have likewise yielded remains of an 
ox closely allied to, if not identical with, the gaur, 
although it has been described by Professor Rutimeyer 
as a distinct species, under the name of ^. palceogaiirus. 
And from the corresponding formations of Java Dr. 
E. Dubois 2 has recorded a fossil ox, under the name 
of ^. banti7tg fossilis^ which probably bears much the 
same relation to the bantin (B. sondaicus) ; remains 
of the former also occurring in Sumatra. 
In northern India, from the well-known Tertiary 
deposits of the Siwaliks Hills and other low ranges 
at the foot of the Himalaya, remains of several kinds 
of cattle are met with, and as these Siwalik strata are 
certainly not newer than the lower or early portion 
of the Pliocene period their fossil cattle are the 
oldest known members of the group. The largest 
1 Bull. Soc. Zool. France, Paris, 1881, p. 36. 
2 Tejd. Nederland. hid., Amsterdam, vol. li. p. 91. 
