Lake Tchad Buffalo 113 



Biihaliis pumilus^ Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. i^JT,, p. 482, 1875, p. 455, 

 in part. 



(?) "Gray Buffalo," Pechuel-Loesche, Zoo/. 'Jahrb. Syst. vol. iii. p. 721, 

 pi. xxviii. fig. 5 (1888). 



Characters. — Horns oi: adult bull less flattened and less approximated at 

 their bases than in the typical Congo form of nanus, with the smooth tips 

 shorter and curving markedly forwards so as to overhang the forehead, which 

 is flattened. In the cow the horns are sub-cylindrical, curving regularly 

 upwards and inwards, without any sudden angulation or forward inclina- 

 tion. Pits on the forehead of the skull very large. Colour not definitely 

 known, but not improbably gray. 



This form, which is provisionally allowed sub-specific rank, is typified 

 by two skulls with horns obtained by Captain Clapperton and Colonel 

 Denham' from the neighbourhood of Lake Tchad and preserved in the 

 British Museum ; the larger of these being figured by Sir V. Brooke in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for the year 1873, p. 478, as the 

 female of B. pumilus. Both specimens were indeed regarded by Sir Victor 

 as referable to the female of the Congo race, but there is such a marked 

 difference between them that it appears most probable that whereas one 

 (the figured example) indicates a bull, the other belonged to a cow. More- 

 over, the presumed male horns, in their forward inclination, are unlike any 

 specimens I have seen that can be definitely assigned to nanus ; while the 

 large pits in the forehead of the skull are not observable in the latter. The 

 circumstance that Lake Tchad lies beyond the limits of the typical West 

 African forest region, and possesses a different fauna, including giraffes, 

 should likewise not be omitted from consideration. From all these circum- 

 stances taken together there seems a considerable degree oi probability that 

 the Lake Tchad buffalo represents a race by itself, although additional 



1 Nurnitkr of Travels and Discoveria in Northern mid Central Africa, in the Years 1822, '23, and '24, 

 by Major Dcnham, Capt. Clapperton, and Dr. Oiidncy, maps and plates, 2 vols. Svo (1826). 



Q 



