io8 Oxen 



a short mane. General colour of upper-parts bright yellowish or reddish- 

 orange, frequently very similar to that oJ" the bush-pig from the same 

 regions ; long hairs on middle of neck and back and part of those on lower 

 margin oi the ears black, as are the legs from above the knees and hocks 

 downwards, and the tutt at the tip of the tail ; on the upper border of 

 the ears the long hairs are pale yellow ; and the interior of the ears, except 

 tor a black patch near the lower border, is also yellowish. The pits on 

 the torehead ot the skull are very small. 



The history ot the niare, as this dwarf red buiTalo is called at the Gabun, 

 is somewhat curious. The type specimen is the frontlet and horns of an old 

 male (tig. 21), formerly in the possession of the Royal Society of London, 

 but now preserved in the British Museum, where it is the linest specimen 

 representing this race. It was tirst described as long ago as the year 1686 

 by Grew in his Rarities at Gi-cshaiii Co/lcgt\ and was again described, and 

 also tigured, by Pennant^ in 1771. In 1785 Boddaert named it Bos nanus, 

 while Kerr in 1792 and Turton in 1806 gave it the title oi B. pii/ni/iis. In 

 1852 Dr. Gray figured it as the young of the Cape buffalo ; and in 1863 

 Mr. Blyth, apparently unaware of the earlier names, redescribed and re- 

 tigured the same specimen as B. /rc/inis, of which it is also the tvpe. 



In 1873, and again in 1871;, Sir V. Brooke revived the WAxne. puniihts, 

 and included under that title all the specimens described as p/aniccros and 

 brachyccros. Ot the specimens referred to in these memoirs which may 

 be safely assigned to this race, are two skulls in the museum at Leyden 

 brought by Pel from Lower Guinea, which are stated to be very similar 

 to the type, so far as their horns are concerned. Two skulls from the 

 Lower Niger acquired by the British Museum from Dr. Baikie are like- 

 wise referable to this form — the one belonging to an adult cow, and the 



1 Gray, Ami. Mag. Nut. Hist. scr. 4, vol. xil. p. 499 (1873) ; xiii. p. 258 (1874), considered that 

 B. ptimilus of Pennant was founded on the dwarf ox of Belon from Morocco ; see Brooke, op. cit. 

 vol. xiii. p. I 59. 



