Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/27



very glad to see the article in 'The Zoologist' (1897, p. 489), by Surgeon-Captain Henry S. Wood, on the Tsine (Bos sondaicus). Very little is known of that animal, and any detailed account of it must be interesting to all zoologists. The account given by naturalists of the Indian wild cattle is very meagre, for very few of them have been personally acquainted with these beasts in their wild state. I have no pretensions to be considered a scientific naturalist, for I know nothing of anatomy, and very little on the subject of species, genera, &c. But I have observed to the best of my opportunities, and having been a fairly successful sportsman, I trust I may be excused for offering the following observations. Tsine are certainly kittle cattle. During thirteen years' wanderings in Burma I only succeeded in killing three bulls and two cows, and four of them only just before I left India. I agree with Dr. Wood's description and remarks, with the exception that I never saw the warts he mentions, and that those killed by me had the whitish rings round the eyes. Can there be two varieties? Mine were shot at the foot of the Yomahs, on the Sittang side. The bulls also were of a deep red, but I have seen them in the distance almost as dark as a middle-aged Gaur (Bos gaurus), that is, coffee-coloured, but never could get at them; nor did I notice the "thickened portion of skin devoid of hair, Zool. 4th ser.'vol. II., January, 1898.