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84  ANNUAL REGISTER For the YEAR 1772.  85

Received November 15, 1770

An Account of the Nyl-ghau, an Indian Animal, not hitherto described.
By William Hunter, M. D. F. R. S

[Read Feb. 28, 1771.]

AMONG the riches which, of late years, have been imported from India, may be reckoned a fine animal, the Nyl-ghau; which, it is to be hoped, will now be propagated in this country, so as to become one of the most ornamental beasts of the field. It is larger than any ruminant of this country, except the ox; its flesh probably will be found to be delicious; and, if it should prove docile enough to be easily trained to labour, its great swiftness, with considerable strength, might be applied, one would think, to valuable purposes.
 Good paintings of animals give much clearer ideas than descriptions. Whoever looks at the picture, which was done under my eye, by Mr. Stubbs, that excellent painter of animals, can never be at a loss to know the Nyl-ghau, wherever he may happen to meet with it.  However, I shall attempt a description of the animal; and then give as much of its history as I have been hitherto able to learn. The account will be imperfect: yet it will give naturalists some pleasure in the mean time to know a little of a large and elegant animal, which has not hitherto been described, or painted.
 At first sight, the male Nyl-ghau struck my imagination with being of a middle nature, between black cattle and deer; such an animal as we might suppose a mule would be, that was the produce of these two species of beasts. In size, it is as much smaller than the one, as it is larger than the other: and in its form there is a very apparent mixture of resemblance to both.  Its body, horns, and tail, are not unlike those of a bull; and the head, neck , and legs, are very like those of deer.
 COLOUR. The colour, in general, is ash, or grey, from a mixture of black hairs and white: most of the hairs are half white, and half black; the white part is toward the root. The colour of its legs is darker than that of its body; the same thing may be said of its head, with this peculiarity, that there the darker colour is not general and uniform, but some parts are almost quite black. In some parts to be mentioned here-after, the hair is of a beautiful white colour.
 TRUNK. The height of the back, where there is a slight eminence over the shoulder-blade, is four feet and one inch; at the highest part, immediately behind the loins, it is only four feet. The general length of the trunk, as seen in a side view, from the root of the neck to the pendulous tail, is about four feet; which is nearly the height of the animal; so that, in a side view, when it stands with its legs parallel, its back and limbs make nearly three sides of a square, and the ground upon which it stands makes the fourth.
 Round the body, immediately behind the shoulder, it measures four feet and ten inches; and a little more just before the hind legs; but this last dimension, no doubt, will vary considerably, as it happens to be more full or empty of food and drink.
 HAIR. The hair on the body in general is thinner, more bristly and stronger, than on our black cattle. On the belly, and upper part of the limbs, it is longer and softer than upon the back and sides.
 MANE. All along the ridge or edge of the neck and back, as far as the posterior part of the hump which is over the shoulder-blades, the hair is blacker, longer and more erect; making a short, and thin, upright mane.
 The umbilical and hypogastric regions of the belly, the inside of the thighs and all of those parts which are covered by the tail, are white. The praeputium penis is not marked with a tuft of hair; and the sheath of the penis projects very little.
 TESTICLES. The testicles are oblong and pendulous, as in a bull.
 TAIL. The bones of the tail come down to within two inches of the top of the os calcis. The end of the tail in ornamented with long black hair, and likewise with some white, especially on the inside. On the inside of the tail, except near its extremity, there is no hair; and on the right and left there is a border of long white hair, which makes it on the inside look like a feather.
 LEGS. The legs are small in proportion to their length; more so than in our black cattle, and rather less so than in our deer. The length of the fore leg is a little more than two feet and seven inches. There is one white spot on the fore part of each foot, almost immediately above the large hoofs; and another smaller white spot before the small hoofs: above each of the small hoofs, there is a remarkable tuft of long white hair, which turns around in a flat curl. The large hoofs of the fore-leg, are of an awkward length. This was very observable in every one of the five individuals of this species which I have seen; yet it was suspected to be the effect of confinement; and the examination of the hoof, in the dead animal, proved that it was so.
 NECK. The neck is long and slender, as in deer; and when the head is raised, it has the double turn of the italic letter S. At the throat, there is a shield-like spot of beautiful white hair; and lower down, on the beginning of the convexity of the neck, there is a mane-like tuft of long, black hair.
 HEAD. The head is long and slender. From the horns, it rises upwards and backwards to join the neck. Its length, from the horns only to the point of the nose, is about one foot two inches and three quarters.
 NOSE. The partition between the nostrils was artificially perforated for fixing a cord, or bridle, according to the Eastern custom of tying up or leading horned cattle. The nostrils are very long, in a direction almost parallel to the mouth, and are widest at their anterior end.
 MOUTH. The rictis oris is long; and as far as this reaches, the lower jaw is white: so is the upper lip, as far as the nostril.
 TEETH. There are six grinders in each side of each jaw, and four incisor teeth in each half of the lower jaw. The first of the incisors is very broad: and the rest smaller in gradation, as they are placed
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