Indian Buffalo i 23 



the domesticated buffaloes of India. The Bos kerabau appears to have been 

 named on buffaloes of this type from the Malayan Islands which, judging 

 from the hgure given by Brehm, can in no wise be distinguished from the 

 present race. In a half-wild domesticated condition buffaloes are now met 

 with in Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, and all Western Asia 

 as far as Afghanistan. It is generally considered that these European and 

 North African buffaloes have been introduced from India or other Oriental 

 countries, but it should be remembered that there is a Plistocene European 

 form to which it is just possible their ancestry may be traceable. 



Habits. — In India the wild bull buffalo is properly known as the arna, 

 and the female as the arni ; but the animal is very commonly spoken of 

 asjangli bhains, or wild buffalo, bhains being the Hindustani term for the 

 domesticated breed. Other dialects have different titles for the wild race, 

 to which it will be unnecessary to allude on this occasion. Wild buffaloes 

 generally go about in herds ot considerable size, and, like the domestic 

 breed, always carry their heads very low. The near neighbourhood ot 

 pools or lagoons of water, in the mud ot which they can wallow when so 

 disposed, is essential to their existence. They are consequently generally 

 tound near swamps, and never trequent hilly ground. Brakes of reeds, or 

 the tallest and thickest grass-jungles are indeed their tavourite haunts, 

 although they may occasionally be met with on plains covered with low 

 bushes or short grass, but it is very rarely, if ever, that they are met with 

 in true forest. Grass constitutes their chief nutriment ; and, like most 

 members of their tribe, their feeding-times are the early morning and 

 evening. During the heat of the day they sleep much, and it is said 

 that a bull buffalo if roused from his midday slumber by beating with 

 elephants is much more prone to charge than is one stalked on toot while 

 feeding. Doubtless this is largely due to surprise and tear, tor it is a 

 well-known fact that the more suddenly a wild animal is roused the more 

 likely is it to prove dangerous. It, so to speak, loses its head, and cannot 



