We have already taken notice in our description of the buffalo, of the name bubalus being improperly applied to that animal. This name belonged formerly to the animal which we are now about to describe, and which is of a very distant nature from the buffalo. It resembles the stag, the gazelle, and the ox, in many respects; to the stag, by the size and shape of its body, particularly in its legs, but its horns are permanent, and nearly like those of the largest gazelles, to which it has an affinity both in this character and in its natural habits; its head, however, is much longer than that of the gazelles, or even that of the stags. He resembles the ox by the length of the muzzle and the disposition of the bones of the head, the cranium not advancing beyond the os frontalis: these different marks of conformation, joined to its ancient name, being forgotten, is the reason why it has obtained the several names of busephalus, the bull-stag, bucula-cervina, the cow-hind, the Barbary cow, &c. Even the name of bubalus comes from bubulus, and has been applied to this animal from its similitude to the ox.
The head of the bubalus is narrow and very long, the eyes are placed very high, the forehead very short and narrow, the horns permanent, black, thick, and very closely annulated: they are close to each other at the root, but spread very distant at their extremities; they are crooked backwards, and twisted like a corkscrew; his shoulders are so elevated that they form a sort of bunch upon the withers; the tail is nearly a foot long, and furnished with a bunch of hair at its extremity; and the ears resemble those of the antelope. Kolbe calls this animal by the name of elk, although it only resembles the elk by its hair being finer at the root, than in the middle or at the points; this character is peculiar to these two animals, for the hair of almost every other quadruped is thicker at the root than at the middle and point. The hair is nearly of the same colour as the elk, though much shorter, thinner, and softer. These alone are the resemblances between the bubalus and the elk; in every other respect these two animals are entirely different. The horns of the elk are larger and heavier than those of the stag, and are renewed every year; the bubalus, on the contrary, does not shed its horns, but they continue their growth during life, and in form and texture are like those of the gazelles. He resembles the gazelles also by the shape of his body, the smallness of his head, the length of his neck, the position of his eyes, ears, and horns, and in the shape and length of the tail. The gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences, to whom one of these animals was presented by the name of the Barbary cow, and who adopted that denomination, did not hesitate to acknowledge it to be the bubalus of the ancients. Though we have rejected this denomination of Barbary cow, as equivocal and confused, yet as for the rest, we could not do better than copy the exact description those gentlemen have given of this animal, and by which we perceive it is neither gazelle, goat, cow, elk, nor stag, but a particular and distinct species. This animal is also the same that Caius has described under the name of buselaphus, and I was surprised that the gentlemen of the Academy did not make this remark, since all the characters which Caius gives to his buselaphus agree with their Barbary cow.
In the royal cabinet is, first, the skeleton of a bubalus the gentlemen of the Academy bad described and dissected, by the name of the Barbary cow. Secondly, a head much larger than that of this skeleton, the horns of which are also much longer and thicker. Thirdly, a part of another head, with horns as large as the foregoing, but their form and direction are different. There are, therefore, in the bubalus, as well as in the gazelles, antelopes, and others, varieties in the size of the body, and in the shape of the horns; but these differences do not appear to be considerable enough to make distinct and separate species.
The bubalus is common in Barbary, and in all the northern parts of Africa; he is nearly of the same nature as the antelopes, and has, like them, short hair, black hide, and his flesh is good to eat.
The Marquis de Marigny, who embraces every opportunity of encouraging the arts and sciences, shewed me in his cabinet the head of an animal, which, at first sight, I imagined to belong to a large bubalus. It resembled those of our largest stags; but instead of solid horns, like those of the stag, it had two large and hollow ones with a ridge, like those of the he-goat, and with double flexions, like those of the antelope. In examining the royal cabinet for what might be relative to this animal, we found two horns; the first without any mark or name, came from his Majesty’s wardrobe; the second was given to me in 1760 by M. Baurhis, commissary of the Marines, with the name of condoma of the Cape of Good Hope affixed to it. This name we have adopted, as the animal which it denotes has never before been described nor denominated.
By the length, thickness, and, above all, the double flexion of the horns, the condoma approaches very near the strepsiceros of Caius; the shape and contours of the horns are exactly the same, and from which it seems reasonable to presume that they are the same animal, especially if we attend to the following reflections: first, Caius was evidently deceived in considering this animal as the strepsiceros of the ancients; for the strepsiceros of the ancients is certainly the antelope, whose head is very different from that of the stag; while Caius affirms, that the head of his strepsiceros is like that of the stags, therefore his strepsiceros is not the same as that of the ancients. Secondly, the horns of the animal Caius describes, are thick, more than three feet in length, covered with rugosities, and not with rings or tubercles; while those of the strepsiceros of the ancients, or antelope, are much thinner and shorter, and are furnished with rings and tubercles. Thirdly, although the horns of the condoma, which is in the Marquis de Marigny’s cabinet, as well as those which came from the wardrobe of the king, have been polished and used, it is, nevertheless, plainly perceivable, that they never had rings; this is farther demonstrated by the horns M. Baurhis gave to me, which had never been polished, and yet it was rough, like the horns of the he-goat, and not annulated like those of the antelope; besides, Caius himself says, that the horns of his strepsiceros had only rugosities, therefore his strepsiceros is not the same as that of the ancients, but the animal here spoken of, and which, in fact, is furnished with every character Caius has given to that which he describes.