308 BOVINE. 



2 inches ; circumference of right horn at the base 1 foot 8| inches ; width 

 of forehead 11 inches ; skull 2 feet 4 inches long. 



The horns of the spiral race are rarely much more than 3 feet long each. 

 The wild buffalo is found in the swampy Terai at the foot of the hills, 

 from Bhotan to Oude ; also, in the plains of lower Bengal as far west as 

 Tirhoot, but increasing in numbers to the eastwards, on the Burrampooter, 

 and in the Bengal Sunderbuns. It also occurs here and there through the 

 eastern portion of the table-land of Centi'al India, from Midnapore to 

 Raepore, and thence extending south nearly to the Godavery. Soiith and 

 west of this it does not, to my knowledge, occur in India, but a few are 

 found in the north and north-east of Ceylon. 



" The Arna," says Mr. Hodgson, " inhabits the margin rather than the 

 interior of primaeval forests. They never ascend the mountains, and ad- 

 here, like the Rhinoceros, to the most swampy sites of the districts they 

 inhabit. It ruts in autumn, the female gestating 10 mouths, and produces 

 one or two young iu summer. It lives in lai'ge herds, but in the season of 

 love, the most lusty males lead off and appropriate several females, with 

 which they form small herds for the time. The bull is of such power and 

 vigour as by his charge frequently to prostrate a good-sized elephant. 

 They are uniformly in high condition, so unlike the leanness and angu- 

 larity of the domestic buffalo, even at its best." 



Mr. Blyth states it as his opinion that, except in the valley of the Ganges 

 and Burrampooter, it has been introduced and become feral. With this 

 view I cannot agree, and had Mr. Blyth seen the huge buffaloes I saw 

 on the Indrawutty river (in 1857), he would, I think, have changed his 

 opinion. They have hitherto not been recorded south of Raepore, but 

 where I saw them is nearly 200 miles south. I doubt if they cross the 

 Godavery river. 



I have seen them repeatedly, and killed several in the Purneah district. 

 Here they frequent the immense tracts of long grass abounding in dense, 

 swampy thickets, bristling with canes and wild roses; and in these spots, or 

 in the long elephant-grass on the bank of j heels, the buffaloes lie during 

 the heat of the day. They feed chiefly at night or early in the morning, 

 often making sad havoc in the fields, and retire in general before the sun 

 is high. They are by no means shy (unless they have been much hunted), 

 and even on an elephant, without which they could not be successfully 

 hunted, may often be approached within good shooting distance. A wound- 

 ed one will occasionally charge the elejihant, and as 1 have heard from. 



