840 Dr Traill’s Account of the Gour of India. 
by the natives, called Purorah ; the female calf is named Pa- 
reeah : and, when full grown, the cow is called Gourin. 
Gours associate in herds, consisting usually of from ten to 
twenty animals. So numerous are they on Myn Pat, that, in 
one day, the hunting party computed that not less than 80 
gours had passed through the stations occupied by the sports- 
men. 
The gours browze on the leaves and tender shoots of trees 
and shrubs, and also graze on the banks of the streams. Du- 
ring the cold season, they remain concealed in the said forests, 
but in hot weather, come out to feed in the green valleys and 
lawns which occur on the mountain of Myn Pat. They shewed 
no disposition to wallow in mires or swamps, like the buffalo ; 
a habit, indeed, which the sleekness of their skins renders not at 
all probable. 
Such are the particulars which I have been able to collect re- 
specting the Gour. Whether they are sufficient to characterize 
it as a distinct species of Bos y I shall not pretend to decide. 
The size, form, horns, and, above all, the want of a dewlap, 
incline me to this conclusion ; but we may soon hope to have 
the point ascertained beyond dispute, by the transmission to 
England of further observations, and of a correct figure of the 
animal, by some of our enterprising countrymen in India *. 
PLATE Xr 
Fig. A. Outline of the base of one of the polished horns of the 
Gour. 
Fig. B. Sketch of the same horn, with its convex side towards 
the eye. 
* In the 9th volume of the Mem . du Mus. d'Hist. Nat., Geoffroy St Hilaire 
gives some particulars in regard to the natural history of the Gour. He considers 
the remarkable dorsal ridge as produced by bones superadded to its dorsal spinous 
processes, and that this arrangement is analogous to the rays in the fins of fishes. 
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