From all that is at present known respecting this animal, it is regarded by M. F. Cuvier as a new species added to the genus Bos; and, from the circumstance of its having been first seen in a wild state near the mountains of Sylhet, he has given it the specific name of Sylhetanus.
The animal represented in the following vignette is the Syrian Ox, which is considered as a variety of Bos Taurus.
THE BUFFALO.
The animal generally known under the name of the Common Buffalo is evidently a different species from the Cape Buffalo. Much confusion, however, prevails in the accounts, both of travellers and naturalists, on the subject of these two animals. Descriptions of the one are mingled with descriptions of the other, and anecdotes are related of the one which, there is good reason for believing, ought to be referred to the other. It is highly probable that future and more accurate observations will show that more than one species has been confounded under the general epithets of "the common Buffalo," "the domestic Buffalo," "the tame Buffalo," or, more indeterminate still, "the Buffalo."
The accounts furnished by travellers of the various animals in Asia and Africa, described by them as Buffaloes, are altogether vague and unsatisfactory, and frequently erroneous; not from any desire on the part of the authors to deceive, but merely because their observations have been made in the most careless and indifferent manner; and, in many instances, their information is obtained from the verbal communications of ignorant natives.
In those descriptions which are confined to the Buffalo, as it at present exists in Italy and the south of Europe, tolerable reliance may be placed, as their character and habits are there well known, being of every day observation; yet, even in this case, little or nothing is known of the anatomy of the animal, and its period of gestation has never been precisely stated. The following information on this latter point is given in Griffith's 'Cuvier,' (vol. iv, p. 383,) "Gestation is said to last twelve months, but it appears not to exceed ten."