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OCTOBER, 1885.]
ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF INDIA.
283
breed; and this Knidian writer tells us why they are reported to be of two sorts : one fierce, and keep so many dogs, and this is the reason : armed with sharp-pointed teeth, which gives from the time of the summer solstice on to mid- endless trouble to the fishermen, and is of a rewinter they are incessantly attacked by herds morselessly cruel disposition; while the other of wild oxen, coming like a swarm of bees or a kind is naturally mild and tame, swims about flight of angry wasps, only that the oxen are in the friskiest way, and is quite like a fawning more numerous by far. They are ferocious dog; it does not run !! (sic in translation) withal and proudly defiant, and butt most vici- away when anyone tries to stroke it, and it ously with their horns. The Kynamolgoi, un takes with pleasure any food it is offered." able to withstand them otherwise, let loose The first of these is probably the Indus species their dogs upon them, which are bred for this of the very curious genus of river porpoise express purpose; and these dogs easily over- (Platanista) which is found in India. The jaws power the oxen, and worry them to death. are provided with numerous conical, recurved During the season when they are left unmolested teeth. These porpoises are very destructive to by the oxen, they employ their dogs in hunting fish, and are occasionally accidentally taken in other animals. They milk the bitches, and nets. According to Jerdon, they are speared this is why they are called Kynamolgoi (dog- by certain tribes of fishermen on the Ganges, milkers). They drink this milk just as we who eat the flesh, and make oil from the blubdrink that of the sheep or goat."
ber, which they use for burning. There is at present a tribe in India who are Under the name Khủắc Kbi, i.e., water hog, noted for keeping a large breed of dogs, which the Platanista is described in Babar's Memoirs are most efficient in the chase. These are the by Erskine. Sir A. Burnes (Cabool, p. 8) calls Labânâs or Brinjárâs, who, by means of their it the Boolun (Bulan). pack eattle, perform most of the inland carriage | The other dolpbin mentioned by Ælian may, in the hilly central regions of the peninsula. I | perhaps, be identified as a species of Delphinus, have met their caravans, and also their fixed which often keeps company with vessels for habitations in the Central Provinces bordering long distances, though probably its tameness is Western Bengal, where they are very numerous. somewhat exaggerated for the sake of contrast. This general region is the one where the Kynamolgoi (or Kynokephaloi) may be presumed to
9. WHALE (Kros). have dwelt. In Orissa there is a Râjâ of a petty
Balænoptera indica, Blyth.-The Indian FinState who keeps a very fine breed of dogs, by
whale. means of which deer are run down, especially, as
Ælian tells us that "whales are to be found I was told, during the rainy season, when the soft
in the Indian sea; they are five times larger ness of the ground prevents them from running than the largest elephant. A rib of this monso fast as they are able to do at other times. There strous fish measures as much as twenty cubits, are similar breeds also in other parts of India. and its lip fifteen cabits." Farther on, he
According to the author of Indian Field states that it is not true that they come near Sports (p. 39), the Raja of KandA in the the shore lying in wait for tunnies." Hazaribagh District of Chatiâ Nagpůr had a The rib, twenty cubits long, was probably breed of such dogs, which hunted in the hot really the ramus of a jaw, and the length given weather and could take up the scent of deer is therefore not excessive, since one in the many hours after they had passed.
Calcutta Museum, according to Jerdon, from The“ oxen" referred to were probably wild an individual eighty-four feet long, measured buffaloes, which still do much injury to the crops twenty-one feet; and it is said that specimens in some parts of India, and are a cause of terror measuring up to one hundred feet have been to the natives.
stranded on the Indian coast. Rami of the 8. DOLPHIN (Acipis).
jaws of whales are even now not uncommonly Platanista indi., Blyth. Delphinus (Sp.7) mistaken for ribs. Ælian tells us that the dolphins of India Since the species of this genus of whales 33 Hist. Anim., Ivi. 18.
* Hist. Anim. xvi. 12. » Mammals of India, p. 159.
36 Mammals of India, p. 161.
