CHAPTER XIV 



BUFFALOES 

 Subfamily Bovina 



The subfamily Bovince, comprising the oxen, bison, buf- 

 faloes, and their allies, are the largest or most heavily- 

 built members of the family Bovidce. They are char- 

 acterized by their heavy bodies, short, thick legs and neck, 

 and large heads. The muzzle is large and broad, the snout 

 of moderate length, and the face without anteorbital glands. 

 The horns are broad or rounded but never ringed, and are 

 well developed in both sexes. The female is furnished with 

 four mammae. The body varies in outline from the low 

 withers and well-developed hind quarters of the ox and 

 buffalo to the high withers and weak hind quarters of the 

 bison. The tail is long and tufted, the hoofs large, with 

 well-developed false hoofs, the pelage rather short and 

 often scanty, and the coloration monocolor without con- 

 trasting color marks of any sort. The teeth are very much 

 broader than those of antelopes, with rectangular crowns, 

 and broad crests or lophs with the valleys between very 

 shallow or obsolete. The skull is without sinuses between 

 the facial bones, but has rather long nasal bones, small 

 anterior nares, and broad expanded tips to the premax- 

 illary bones. The horn-cores arise laterally behind the 

 orbits and extend outward and downward or backward but 

 never upward at an angle to the dorsal profile of the head. 

 In general shape the skull resembles closely that of the 



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