or little known Mammalia, 285 



of the common buffalo, Bos Bubalus, and satisfied myself 

 from the difference in the form and position of the horns that 

 they were a distinct species, in the e Magazine of Natural 

 History' for 1837 (new series, vol. i. p. 589), I indicated them 

 as a new species, under the name of Bos brachyceros. 



In the course of this summer, Mr. Cross, of the Surrey Zo- 

 ological Gardens, received from Sierra Leone, under the name 

 of the Bush Cow, a specimen which serves more fully to esta- 

 blish the species. It differs from the buffalo and all the other 

 oxen in several important characters, especially in the large 

 size and peculiar bearding of the ears, and in being totally de- 

 ficient of any dewlap. It also differs from the buffalo in its 

 forehead being flatter and quite destitute of the convex form 

 which is so striking in all the varieties of that animal. 



Mr. Cross's cow is, like the head in the Museum, of a nearly 

 uniform pale chestnut colour. The hair is rather scattered, and 

 nearly perpendicular to the surface of the body. The legs about 

 the knees and hocks are rather darker. The ears are very large, 

 with two rows of very long hairs on the inner side and a tuft 

 of long hairs at the tips. The body is short and barrel- shaped, 

 and the tail reaches to the hocks, rather thin and tapering, 

 with a tuft of long hairs at the tip. The chest is rounded and 

 rather dependent, but without the least appearance of a dew- 

 lap, and the horns nearly resemble those of the Museum spe- 

 cimen, but are less developed, from the sex and evidently 

 greater youth of the animal. The Rev. Mr. Morgan informs 

 me that the animal is not rare in the bush near Sierra Leone. 

 In the size of the ears this species has some resemblance to 

 the (£ Pegasse of Angola, Bos Pegasus 1 ' of Colonel Hamilton 

 Smith, indicated and figured in Griffiths' ' Animal Kingdom,' 

 from a figure which this industrious zoologist found in a col- 

 lection of drawings formerly the property of Prince Maurice 

 of Nassau, now in the Berlin Library, which Colonel Smith 

 thinks was probably intended to represent the Pegasses of 

 Congo, mentioned by the Jesuits, and said to have "ears 

 half a yard in length." But our animal differs from that figure 

 in the ears being nearly erect, and in the horn being of quite 

 a different form and direction. I ^ave added a slight sketch 

 of Mr. Cross's animal (Plate XIII.), which I hope will en- 



