THE BUFFALO. 75 



THE BUFFALO. 



The animal generally known under the name of the 

 Common Buffalo is evidently a different species from the 

 Cape Buffalo. Much confusion, however, prevails in 

 the accounts, both of travellers and naturalists, on the 

 subject of these two animals. Descriptions of the one 

 are mingled with descriptions of the other, and anecdotes 

 are related of the one which, there is good reason for 

 believing, ought to be referred to the other. It is highly 

 probable that future and more accurate observations will 

 show that more than one species has been confounded 

 under the general epithets of " the common Buffalo," 

 " the domestic Buffalo," " the tame Buffalo," or, more 

 indeterminate still, " the Buffalo." 



The accounts furnished by travellers of the various 

 animals in Asia and Africa, described by them as Buffa- 

 loes, are altogether vague and unsatisfactory, and fre- 

 quently erroneous ; not from any desire on the part of 

 the authors to deceive, but merely because their obser- 

 vations have been made in the most careless and indiffe- 

 rent manner ; and, in many instances, their information 

 is obtained from the verbal communications of ignorant 

 natives. 



In those descriptions which are confined to the Buffalo, 

 as it at present exists in Italy and the south of Europe, 

 tolerable reliance may be placed, as their character and 

 habits are there well known, being of every day obser- 

 vation ; yet, even in this case, little or nothing is known 



