"Each Cow yields from two and a half to about four sérs [from five to eight pounds] of milk, which is rich, sweet, and almost as thick as cream; it is of a high flavour, and makes excellent butter."
We learn from Mr. Dick that the Gayal is called Gaujangali in the Persian language, Gavaya in Sanscrit, and Mat'hana by the mountaineers; but others name the animal Gobay-goru.
The tame Gayals, however long they may have been domesticated, do not at all differ from the wild ones, unless in temper, for the wild ones are fierce and untractable. The colour of both is the same, namely, that of the Antelope, but some are white and others black, none are spotted or piebald. They graze and range like other cattle, and eat rice, mustard, chiches, and any cultivated produce, as also chaff and chopped straw.
According to this gentleman the Gayal lives to the age of twenty or twenty-five years, and reaches its full growth at five years. The female is generally higher than the male. She receives the bull in her fifth year, and bears after ten months.
In reference to the case of Mr. Bird's Gayal breeding with the common Zebu, I may observe that this proves nothing beyond the bare fact stated; no inference whatever of an identity of species can be drawn from a thousand such cases. It is pretty well known that animals of perfectly distinct species will, when artificially brought together, produce hybrids, as in the familiar examples of the Horse and the Ass, the Canary and the Goldfinch; but a hybrid is neither a species nor (zoologically speaking) a variety.
In a paper on the Gour, by General Hardwicke, ('Zoological Journal,' Vol. III,) he introduces the following observations on the Gayal: "Of the Gayal (Bos Gavæas of Colebrooke) there appears to be more than one species. The provinces of Chatgong and Sylhet produce the wild, or, as the Natives term it, the Asseel Gayal, and the domesticated one. The former is considered an untameable animal, extremely fierce, and not to be taken alive. It rarely quits the mountain tract of the south-east frontier, and never mixes with the Gobbay, or village Gayal of the plains. I succeeded in obtaining the skin, with the head, of the Asseel Gayal, which is deposited in the Museum of the Hon. East-India Company, in Leadenhall Street." [A drawing was taken of this head, of which the engraving on the opposite page is a copy.]
"I may notice another species of Gayal, of which a male and female were in the Governor General's park, at Barrackpore. This species differs in some particulars from the domesticated Gayal, and also from the Asseel, or true Gayal; first, in size, being a larger animal than the domestic one; secondly, in the largeness of the dewlap, which is deeper and more undulated than in either the wild or tame species; and, thirdly, in the size and form of the horns."
Thus, according to the opinion of General Hardwicke, there are three distinct species of the Gayal; but in this matter nothing can be decided without further evidence, which we hope will soon appear in the shape of complete skeletons, and accurate drawings and descriptions.
