AFRICAN BUFFALO 



" As age increases, the space between the horns on the forehead 

 decreases, but so far as my experience goes, the pahns never actually 

 meet. The horns are much prized by natives of West Africa for fetish 

 ceremonies, where they are used for blowing the most hideous calls. 

 The animal is nowhere very common, and unless such are to be found 

 in the Congo wilds, large herds are unknown. 



" As regards the character of the country most affected by this 

 buffalo, contradictory statements occur. In my earlier years in West 

 Africa I was given to understand by Europeans more or less acquainted 

 with the country that it was in the dense bush of the big waterways, 

 and in the thick forest-belt which 

 extends parallel to the sea through- 

 out the west coast to a depth of lOO 

 miles from the sea, that I should 

 find this animal, while, according to 

 others, the more open bush, 150 to 

 500 miles from the sea, was its 

 country. In my opinion, this buffalo 

 seems to prefer a light open bush- 

 country, well watered, with small 

 belts of thick bush in which it can 

 lie up in the daytime. The belt of 

 forest beside the waterwa)'s may be 

 replaced by the thick dense bush of 

 the big gullies of the plateau-topped 

 hills of Nigeria. 



" As a rule, these buffaloes go 

 about in pairs, with perhaps a calf ; 

 but near Lokoya, in Nigeria, at 

 the junction of the Niger and the 



Benue rivers, I came across a herd of twenty. They appear to drink 

 just before dawn, and then feed slowly either uphill towards the dense 

 shady bush in the hillside gullies, or through the open scattered bush 

 to some other gully, in the deep recesses of which they lie up for the 

 remainder of the day. 



" Throughout West Africa the ' bush-cow ' has a reputation for 

 ferocity, which I believe to be due more to the imagination of the 

 natives than to any real danger incurred in hunting these animals. 

 The slaying of a ' bona ' is considered a great feat by the natives, men 

 being occasionally met with who are known as ' bush-cow killers.' 

 When a native kills a bull he must retire into his house and remain 



Fig. 27. — Skull and Horns of the Congo 

 Buffalo, from a specimen shot by Major 

 A. J. Arnold. 



