The Buffaloes are so far distinct from other wild cattle that they will not interbreed with them; yet one species, the Indian Buffalo, has been domesticated for a long, though unknown period, and is among the most valuable of tame beasts of draught, as well as for dairy purposes. The various buffaloes usually have little hair, especially when old, and have flatter shoulders than the gaur, gayal, or bison. The pairs of ribs number thirteen.
By permission of the New York Zoological Society.
AMERICAN BULL BISON.
The American bison (locally called "buffalo") is lower behind than its European brother; but the withers, as will be seen from the photograph, are stronger and more massive, and its mane considerably longer.
The African Buffalo.
Great differences in size and colour exist in the African Buffaloes. Whether they are separate species or not may be doubtful; but the small yellow Congo Buffalo, with upturned short horns, is a vastly different creature from the large black Cape Buffalo. There is also an Abyssinian or brown race of African buffalo, and another in Senegambia smaller than the former, and a reputed grey race near Lake Tchad. The Cape buffalo is a heavy, thickset animal, all black in colour, with large massive horns covering the skull, and nearly meeting in the middle line of the forehead. In height it varies from 4 feet 10 inches to 5 feet at the shoulder. This species ranges from South Africa to the Congo on the west, and to the region of the Equator on the east of the continent. Firearms, and lately rinderpest, have greatly reduced the number of these creatures. They live and feed in herds, and, like the Indian species, are fond of the neighbourhood of water, in which they bathe, but are not so dependent on bathing and wallowing as the former.
Fully as formidable as the Indian buffalo, and much like it in habits, the African species is quite distinct. It has different horns, broad at the base and curled and tapering at the ends. Among the extreme measurements of the Indian buffalo's horns recorded is one of 12 feet 2 inches from tip to tip along the curve. Those of the African buffalo are seldom more than 6 feet, measured in the same way. By far the greatest number of hunting accidents in Africa are caused by the buffalo. Sir Samuel Baker shot a buffalo bull one evening near the White Nile. His men actually danced upon the body, when the animal rose to its feet, and sent them flying into the river like so many frogs. It then disappeared in the thick vegetation. On the following day, supposing that it must have died during the night, thirty or forty men, armed with double-barrelled guns, went to look for it. The result was thus recorded by Sir Samuel Baker: "They had not been ashore for many minutes when I first heard a shot and then a regular volley. My people returned with the head of the buffalo and a large quantity of meat, but they also carried the body of my best man, who, when leading the way through the high reeds, following the traces of blood, actually stumbled upon the buffalo lying in the swamp, and the light guns failed to stop its charge. The crooked horn had caught him behind the ear, and, penetrating completely through the neck, had torn out the throat as though it had been cut. The savage beast had then knelt upon the body, and stamped it into the muddy ground, until it fell beneath the fire of thirty men."
The head and body of a male Cape buffalo are 9 feet long. It is stated that the parasite conveyed by the tsetse fly remains in the blood of the buffalo (which is not affected by it), and that this forms a reserve whence the fly, after sucking the blood of the buffalo, poisons other animals.
