406 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



Other characters are the massive horns, which are very- 

 broad basally and cover the whole crown of the head, the 

 concave profile of the snout, the short, broad nasal bones, 

 and the broad ears. The genus is confined to Africa south of 

 the Sahara, where it is of universal distribution from the low 

 coast lands to the limits of forests on the highest mountain 

 areas. A single species, cafer^ with its several geographical 

 races, comprise the genus. Three fossil species, very re- 

 cently extinct, from the Pleistocene age have been described. 

 One of these from the Orange Free State, baini, had very 

 much longer horns than the species now living in the same 

 region, but closely resembled in this respect a species, 

 antiguus, described from deposits of the same age in Al- 

 geria. A third species has been described from the Pleis- 

 tocene of Natal. 



Nearly a quarter of a century ago the African buff^aloes 

 were smitten by a terrible scourge, a cattle sickness of such 

 virulent character that as it traversed the continent, from 

 north of the equator to south of the Zambesi, it swept the 

 herds from the face of the earth. Domestic cattle sufi^ered 

 equally, and a few of the big bovine antelopes suffered 

 slightly. Of the buffaloes in East Africa and Uganda prob- 

 ably not one in ten thousand was left alive! It was an ap- 

 palling calamity. The destruction was far more sudden 

 than is ever the case when man is the sole agent, and far 

 more complete for the length of time involved. But there 

 was a vital distinction. When the disease had spent its 

 force it vanished, and the scattered survivors were left 

 free to recover the lost ground. The extraordinary vigor 

 of natural reproductive power, of wild fecundity when there 

 is a vacant place for its action, was then shown to the utter- 

 most. The few remaining buffalo found themselves in pre- 

 cisely the position of the feral horses and cattle turned loose 

 by the Spaniards on the grassy plains of America. They 



