east of the Bay of Bengal it is found from Chittagong through Burmah
to the Malayan peninsula. It was considered that the gaur of the
eastern countries was a distinct species, and is so noted in
Horsfield's Catalogue, and described at some length under the name
of _Bibos asseel_; but it appears that all this distinction was
founded on the single skull of a female gaur, and is an instance of
the proneness of naturalists to create new species on insufficient
data. He himself remarks that when the skin was removed it was evident
that the animal was nearly related to _Gavaeus gaurus_, or, as he
calls it, _Bibos cavifrons_. Mr. G. P. Sanderson shot a fine old male
of what he supposed to be the wild _gayal_, and he says: "I can state
that there was not one single point of difference in appearance or
size between it and the bison of Southern India, except that the horns
were somewhat smaller than what would have been looked for in a bull
of its age in Southern India;" and this point was doubtless an
individual peculiarity, for Blyth, in his 'Catalogue of the Mammals
of Burmah,' says: "Nowhere does this grand species attain a finer
development than in Burmah, and the horns are mostly short and thick,
and very massive as compared with those of the Indian gaurs, though
the distinction is not constant on either side of the Bay of
Bengal."

Jerdon supposes it to have existed in Ceylon till within the present
century, but I do not know on what data he founds his assertion.

[Illustration: _Gavaeus gaurus_.]

DESCRIPTION.--I cannot improve on Jerdon's description, taken as it
is from the writings of Hodgson, Elliot, and Fisher, so I give it
as it stands, adding a few observations of my own on points not
alluded to by them:--

"The skull is massive; the frontals large, deeply concave,
surmounted by a large semi-cylindric crest rising above the base of
the horns. There are thirteen pairs of ribs.[40] The head is square,
proportionately smaller than in the ox; the bony frontal ridge is
five inches above the frontal plane; the muzzle is large and full,
the eyes small, with a full pupil (? iris) of a pale blue colour.
The whole of the head in front of the eyes is covered with a coat
of close short hair, of a light greyish-brown colour, which below
the eyes is darker, approaching almost to black; the muzzle is
greyish and the hair is thick and short; the ears are broad and
fan-shaped; the neck is sunk between the head and back, is sho