Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/35

Rh push aside one of the sliding bars of the gate, break a lower one down, and raise the top bar sufficiently for himself to get through, he ate the bundle of Guinea-grass, and when this was finished he repeated the performance with the outer bars of the shed and walked out to freedom. We are all wise after the event, but it was great carelessness in not pinning the bars, as is done in all well-managed stables in India. If this plan had been adopted, this magnificent animal, 16 hands 1½ in. fair vertical height, might by this time be enriching the 'Zoo,' where nothing but a miserable two-year-old calf has ever been exhibited."

From one cause or other, no two observers agree as to the colour of a Gaur. Mr. Martin's notes on this adult bull are therefore interesting and instructive:—

"Slaty grey on the dorsal ridge, deepening to intense black on the sides and shoulders; coffee-brown on the hind quarters, turning to black on the flanks; hoofs white; legs white to two inches above the knees and hocks on the outside, and to one inch above the knee and hocks on the inside; hair, inside the thighs and armpits, bright chestnut; neck black, with a large dewlap covered with coarse black hair, hanging down to a little below the level of the knees; head, frontal ridge, slaty grey, black down the front and sides of the face; the muzzle bare and dark slate. Colour of the iris of the eye mottled light brown; pupil slaty blue. But these differ in colour in accordance with age, the very old being black, with the exception of the stockings and forehead, which are dirty white."

In another instance a large bull Gaur was caught in an elephant-pit on the Annemullie Hills, and this animal took water freely from a bamboo spout. The gentleman who caught it, not being in a position to keep and tame the bull, released it; but it was ungrateful, and resented its capture by charging down on its captor whilst the latter was taking its photograph as it emerged from the pit, and he had to fly ignominiously, but not before he succeeded in photographing the animal.

Whether the Gaur would interbreed with tame cows like the Gayal remains to be proved, but I see no reason why it should not. I believe that there are hybrids on the continent between the Java variety of Tsine and tame cattle, but I no not think a Tsine has ever been on show in our Zoological Gardens.