Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/521

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THE BURMESE WILD BULL
493

Under surface of the chest a lightish yellow colour, intermixed with grey. The hair of the skin was short and glossy in the redder parts, but coarse and thick in the grey parts; on the belly the skin was about half an inch thick, but nearly one inch thick on the neck; the surface of the body pitted and scarred here and there from bites of insects and wounds received in battle; there were four rudimentary mammæ, half an inch in length, situated in front of the scrotum, two on each side of the mesial line, and of a saffron colour. The scrotum was covered with a fine silky greyish hair. The upper part of the head anteriorly and at the sides was of a tawny white; the under parts were much lighter, being almost grey; the muzzle greyish black; the neck reddish brown. Lips greyish white, covered with black bristles; and the lower lip had a fringe of long grey hairs projecting from its under surface. The tail has a distinct reddish brown tuft. The ears are comparatively small, when compared with those of the Cow: upper parts of ears reddish brown, posteriorly greyish white, tips and anterior edges jet black; greyish white hairs of considerable length projecting inwards from the anterior border; the interior of the auricle is of a saffron colour; the left ear was split in four places, the largest being six inches in length; colour round eyes greyish white, eyelashes black; fleshy parts of nose also black. Eyes: irides brown; cornea bluish white. The incisors of the lower jaw were loose and considerably worn down, showing that the Bull was probably an old one, perhaps twenty years of age. There was a most curious condition at the upper part of the head over the frontal region, where, instead of a skin covered with hair, there was a thickened portion of skin devoid of hair, and of a greyish black colour; its general surface was smooth, but in patches very warty like the skin of a Rhinoceros. This curious portion of skin extended like a chaplet over the head; the area it occupied would be represented in the dry skull by lines drawn between the upper parts of the orbit and between the bases of horns at the top of the skull; between the horns this cuticle formed a distinct projection or crest; this covering was soft on pressure and slightly moveable. This skin evidently forms a most excellent cushion for breaking the shock of any concussion on the forehead, e.g. as in fighting. The reason of its being present in the Tsine is that the bones of the skull are