Wild Oxen S h e e p A G o a t s . Pl a t e II.
BULL GAYAL.
Pnblishecb by Rowland, YfartLLhL.
Gayal 31
restricted the wild beasts, particularly the elephants and gaur, when
passing across the estate, to one or two pathways. One particular track
was, however, left to them for about ten years, when further cultivation
led at last to the blocking up of even this right of way. The animals
were at first much puzzled, and both elephants and gaur took to wandering
about the cultivation. The elephants accommodated themselves to the
altered conditions and used the estate paths. The gaur, more suspicious,
took a ^straight line for their grazing grounds over the rotten felled
timber and through the older cinchona plantations, but were often brought
up by the sight of white-washed walls surmounted by a corrugated iron
roof. At last they settled down to a pathway between the old cinchona and
'id piatural belt left between it and the new clearing. A pit 10 feet long,
8 feet wide and 8 feet deep, was dug on the boundary, covered with a mat
madelif reeds and bambgpover which earth and dry leaves were scattered.
The smell of the fresh earth, however, turned them off. Once a gaur got
his fore-feet down the side o f the pit, but made a bold jump and cleared it.
The title of bison fommonly given to this species by Anglo-Indian
sportsmen is a misnomer.
2 . T he G a y a l— Bos fro n ta l is
BejÊfrontaUs, Lambert, Tram. Linn. 'Êiïc:. vol. v ii. pp. 57 an<^ 3° 2
(1804) ; Sundevall, K . Svemka Vet. Ak. Handl. for 1844, p. 76 (1846) ;
Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. X x x i. p. .338 (18 6 2 ); P. L. Sclater,
Proc. Z00L Soc. 1866, p. 1, pi. g ; Sarbo, ibid. 18834JL 143 ; Blanford, ibid.
1890, p. 593, Fauna Brit. IndiaSrMamtn. p. 487 (1891);; W. L. Sclater,
Cat. Mamm. Ind. Mus. pt. ii. p. 126 (1891) ; Huet, Bull. Soc. Acclim.
Paris, vol. x x x v iii. p. 9 £*891) ; Ward, Records o f Big Game, p. 274 (1896).
Bets gavceus, Colebrooke, As. Researches, vol. viii. p. 488 (18 0 5 );
Hodgson, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. x . pp. 453 anc^ 47° (1 841 )•