416 NOTE ON MR. BLYTH's PAPER. 



cies ; viz. the Wadau, an animal of the size of an A.ss, having very large 

 (or, as is elsewhere stated, very long, heavy) horns, and large bunches of 

 hair hanging from each shoulder, to the length of 18 in. or 2 ft. ; they 

 have very large heads, and are very fierce. The Bogua-el-Wecih, which is 

 a kind of Buffalo, slow in its motion, having very large horns, and being of 

 the size of an ordinary Cow ; and the White Buffalo, of a lighter and more 

 active make, very shy and swift, and not easily procured. The calving 

 time of these animals is in April and May." 



It is scarcely necessary to observe that the word Buffalo is most vaguely 

 applied by many persons to any animal in some degree approaching to an 

 Ox in form, but which is different from an Ox ; thus, in America, the Bi- 

 son of that country is so termed, and to make the matter worse, as the 

 animal inhabits the same districts as the so-called Indian, a paragraph 

 lately went the round of the newspapers of somebody in this country pos- 

 sessing several " Indian Buffaloes" in his park, whereas American Bisons 

 were intended ; and the large or Brahminy breed of Zebras is likewise com- 

 monly so called by English graziers. Moreover, Capt. Lyon notices (at 

 p. 44.) that all the grazing animals of Barbary " have the power of re- 

 maining a great length of time without drinking," as indeed is the case 

 with the upland-feeding sheep of this country. " Antelopes and Buffaloes," 

 he adds, *' I should conceive in some cases never touch water, none being 

 found on the surface of the desert, and they are unable to obtain that which 

 is in the wells," to which the Carwivora constantly resort. Hence it is ob- 

 vious that the semi-aquatic beasts, correctly termed Buffaloes, cannot be 

 alluded to ; and with respect to those really intended, it may be remarked 

 that unless they feed on very succulent herbage, itjs impossible that they 

 should remain long without drinking : witness the dreaded TacJc-bokken, 

 or migrations of the spring-bok (Gazella euchore) in South Africa, when 

 the brackish pools to which they ordinarily resort are dried up ; or 

 the narration of J. Wilkinson, Esq. (' Journ. Geog. Soc.,' II. 49-), of a 

 troop of common Gazelles (G. dorcas) passing through his encampment 

 at Guttar, in the eastern Egyptian desert, which was their only route to 

 the spring, and returning the same way. Even the Camel, if I may con- 

 tinue the digression, notwithstanding its peculiar organization and express 

 training for this very object, cannot, at the utmost, endure more than five 

 days total abstinence from water (vide Burnes' ' Travels in Bokhara,' II. 

 18, 179; and ' Edin. New Phil. Journ.,' 1832, 192.) ; unless, indeed, it 

 meet with a supply of succulent herbage, which, if in sufficient quantity, 

 precludes all necessity for drinking (vide Wellsted's 'Travels in Arabia,* I. 

 298; Russell's 'Nat. Hist. Aleppo,' 56, &c.). Thus it is that the con- 

 flicting statements of various trustworthy authorities may be reconciled 

 without resorting to the scepticism of Burckhardt (vide ' Biography,' of 

 that estimable traveller, prefixed to ' Travels in Nubia,' p. Ixxiii.) ; and it 

 is worthy of being noticed, that Buffon mentions four days as an extraor- 

 dinary period for a Camel to remain without drinking. 



To return, however, to the " Buffaloes" of Capt. Lyon. As it is clear 

 that these are not Buffaloes, it remains to observe that the third species is 

 obviously the White Oryx, as noticed by Col. H. Smith ; the second is as 

 plainly either the common North African Bubalio, or, more probably, an 

 allied species with which I am acquainted, as yet undescribed ; and the 

 first is also undescribed, or at most but indicated, probably as the Brook- 

 sian Gnoo of Col. H. Smith, to which genus it would certainly seem to 

 belong, and also as the Pegasus of Pliny, or " winged horse of Ethiopia, 

 armed with horns," the Pagasse, Pacasse, Empacasse, &c., of various wri- 

 ters of the last and preceding centuries, and the Bos ? pegasus, of Col. Ha- 

 milton Smith ; its " large bunches of hair hanging from each shoulder, to 

 the length of 18 in. or 2 ft.", according to Capt. Lyon, doubtless originat- 

 ing the notion of its being winged. 



