them as at times snorting and stamping when disturbed before making off,
and when in headlong flight crashing through tree and bamboo jungle with
apparent ease, owing to their enormous weight and strength. The pairing
season is stated to take place during the cold weather, and in Peninsular India
the calves are, for the most part, dropped in August or September, although
a few make their appearance in April, May, or June. The alarm cry of the
gaur is a kind of whistling snort; there is also a sort of mooing cry,"and
likewise a loud bellow, used as a call. According to Mr. Blanford, none of
these sounds are at all like those uttered by the Indian humped cattle.
Some difference of opinion exists as to whether the' gaur lias ever
been domesticated ; and as I have no personal information on this point,
I can only quote what has been written by others,. Mr. Blanford writes
as fo llow s^ S 1 In India all attempts at domestication of thjftbovine have
been failures. The calves appear always to die in captivity, none, it iff;
said, having been known to attain their third year. But there can be
little doubt that the gaur has been tamed and kept tame in s»m||of the
hill-tracts between Assam and Burma.” A paraphrase of this statement
was published by myself in the Royal Natural History. Commenting
thereon, Colonel Pollok makes the following statement H S 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.” In a- footnote it iff: added
that the writer was evidently misled by Sanderson, whereas in reality,
as shown above, I have merely quoted Mr. Blanford, from whomwme
additional remarks on this subject are referred to under the next species.
As illustrative of the extreme activity of the gaur, the following
extract from a correspondent of Colonel Pollok living in Travancore is
worth quotation
“ When the Kaunan Devan Hills in North Travanpore were opened
out for tea and cinchona some years ago, the felling o f the tea i&rest