India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace].

  • Robert Wallace
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: India in 1887 as seen by Robert Wallace / [Robert Wallace]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    64/550 (page 22)
    colour is much more likely to be the result of the “stain left by the aboriginal cattle, which seem to have been much darker in the colour of hair than those of the present time.1 The variety of the Mysore cattle which is perhaps the handsomest, best known, and most largely represented, is the Amrit Mahal breed, the chief centre of which is the Hunsur grazing farm of the Madras Government. The distinguishing features may be gathered from the following description :—The head is long and tapering towards the muzzle, which is generally black. The fore- head bulges out beyond the line of the elongated nose like the foreheads of many young calves of our home breeds. The horns are set well back on the crest of the frontal bone. They spring close together like the horns of a goat, then diverge, and incline backwards each in a straight line for fully half the length, when with a gentle and graceful curve they bend upwards and usually slightly inwards towards their terminations, which are black tipped and exceedingly sharp. At times when the head is down, as when feeding, the horns touch or almost touch the neck- in front of the hump. They thicken gradually as the head is approached, and arc very strong near the base, which seems to extend, apparently to give strength, down the forehead between the eyes, as a distinct ridge on each side, thus forming a perpendicular groove or depression in the centre of the forehead. Plates I., II., and III. represent horns as they ought to be. Plate IV. (a and b) shows the largest horns which I saw in the Mysore breed. The ones marked b measured 3-^ feet in length, and 16 inches in girth at a distance of 6 inches from the junction 1 Cubbon says, 2nd Sept. 1S18, “Coloured cattle are considered inferior to the white or grey in energy and perseverance, though they are rather superior in size.” The latter remark only refers to this special case, and is the reverse of the usual rule.