Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/29

Rh about six or seven years, rings begin to form at the base of the horns, and it is said one is added each year; if so, I must have shot bulls thirty-five or forty years of age. They prefer hilly ranges with flat table-land at top, at an altitude of about 2500 ft.; but they have been killed up to 5000 ft., and traced up even higher. It is a wonderfully active animal for its size and bulk. They browse on young bamboo shoots, and are also fond of grazing on the young grass which springs up after the annual fires. They retire during the heat of the day, either to forests, or force their way into heavy patches of long elephant-grass, and lie there to escape the gadflies, which otherwise torment them dreadfully. As a rule they are inoffensive, but a solitary bull has been known to charge without provocation; if closely followed, all Gaur are apt to prove pugnacious. They are not difficult to kill; a bullet well placed behind the shoulder, in the middle of the shoulder, or behind the ear, or a raking shot forward, will account for one—I have known one paralyzed by a shot through the dorsal ridge. When alarmed their enormous strength and weight enable them toe rashto crash [sic] through tree and bamboo jungle as if they were but reeds. I have known them when alarmed to snort, and stamp with their feet before retiring. The tongue and marrow-bones are unexceptionable; the only portion of the beast fit to eat by Europeans is the middle layer on either side of the dorsal side, just below the hump; the tail makes very good ox-tail soup.

Mr. Sanderson shot a Gaur in Assam, and as its name and that of the Gayal is "Mithûn," he came to the conclusion that there were no wild Gayal; but although "Mithûn" is usually applied to both the Gaur and Gayal, yet, if pressed, the people will own to an "Asseel Mithûn" or true Gaur, and a "Mithûn" (or bastard Gaur) the Gayal. In a Natural History lately published it has been asserted that the Gaur has been tamed, and that they are kept in captivity by natives on our North-Eastern Frontier, but this is altogether erroneous. The very old bulls are either driven away from the herds, or retire and become solitaires, and are the best worth shooting, but they are wary, and difficult to