THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



Abyssinia in the north, although he is now rare in South 

 Africa, having been practically exterminated there in mod- 

 ern times, as the country became more and more settled 

 with white people. In Portuguese, German, and British 

 East Africa the once countless herds of buffalo were very 

 materially reduced some eighteen years ago by the terrible 

 " Rinderpest," which threatened them with total destruc- 

 tion. But they have in the last years fortunately increased 

 there again in great numbers. 



These buffaloes are most powerfully built animals. 

 The body of a full-grown bull measures from tip of the 

 nose to base of the tail from eight to nine feet in length, 

 and he stands fully four and one half feet high at the 

 shoulder. The buffaloes live in great herds, feeding to- 

 gether like cattle, but old bulls often separate from the main 

 body and live by themselves, as do the old males of ele- 

 phants, rhinos, and giraffes. The color of the Cape buf- 

 falo is black, with very little hair on the body, which on 

 old bulls seems entirely to disappear except upon the head, 

 where it then generally turns gray. The shape and size 

 of the horns of buffaloes vary a great deal. The horns of 

 the female are much thinner and flatter than those of the 

 bull. They never meet at their base and are also much 

 smoother on the surface than the horns of the male buffalo. 

 Even among the bulls there is a great difference in the 

 horns, which of even some very old ones never touch each 

 other at the base, while those of others seem to be almost 

 grown together. I have seen a pair of horns that were 

 actually so close together at the base that it almost ap- 

 peared as if they formed one solid mass ; but this, I believe, 

 is very unusual. There is generally enough space between 



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