I20 Oxen 



Bos [Biihah/s) bujfl'lus^ Blanford, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xxxvi. 

 p. 195 (1867). 



Biihaltis kcrnhiii/, Brehm, Tierlehen — Siiiigethiej-e, vol. iii. p. 327 (1891). 



Biihaliis hiiba/iis, Meyer, Ahh. Miis. Dresden for 1896-97, No. 8, p. 14 

 (1896). 



Plate IX 



Characters. — Size typically very large, the height at the shoulder 

 varying from 5 feet to as much as 6 feet 2 inches in adult bulls. Head 

 relatively long, with the muzzle moderately broad, and the nasal bones of 

 the skull elongated ; the profile of the whole head nearly straight, and 

 the convexity of the forehead moderate. Horns black, very long, distinctly 

 triangular, tapering regularly from base to tip, with irregular transverse 

 ridges and grooves for the greater part ot their length ; their bases widely 

 separated, and their curvature not varying much from one plane, although 

 typically there is a distinct recession behind the plane of the centre of the 

 forehead ; typically the curvature is upwards, outwards, and slightly back- 

 wards, markedly increasing towards the tips, where the direction is 

 inwards and slightly forwards. In some examples of the typical race the 

 horns are, however, directed almost outwards till near their tips, when 

 they are curved suddenly upwards. Those of cows longer and more slender 

 than in bulls. Ears comparatively small and tubular, without heavy fringes 

 ot long hair on their margins. Tail reaching about to the hocks, with a 

 small terminal tutt. Hair coarse and sparse, nearly disappearing in the 

 adult ; that on the middle line of the back reversed, so as to be directed 

 forwards from the haunches to the occiput, and forming a whorl in front 

 ot the pelvis ; the colour varying from ashy blackish-gray to dun, the legs 

 sometimes dirty white, more especially in the domesticated race. 



It is somewhat remarkable that all the existing species of Asiatic buffaloes 

 are at once distinguished from their African cousins by the reversal of the 



