Heads and Horns 25 



be distinguished by their horns. The horns of the Abyssinian Buffalo, Bos 

 eqiiinoctialis (Plate VI, Fig. 6) , are strongly flattened on top, and as they leave 

 the head they do not drop as low as those of the Cape Buffalo. In bulk, this 

 spec-ies is big and burly, and quite like the better-known species of the South. 

 The pair of horns in the collection spread 33 :i i inches. They are quite flat on 

 the upper surface of the basal half, and at their widest point each horn meas- 

 ures QVi inches across, in a straight line. 



The horns of the Cape Buffalo, Bo* caffer (Plate VI, Figs. 3 and 7) 

 are rounded on their upper surface, and drop lower and spread much more 

 widely than those of the Abyssinian species. Like the horns of the musk-ox, 

 their bases are very wide across, they grow very close together, and drop 

 abruptly from the top of the skull. Our pair are exactly equal in length on 

 curve and in spread 38 inches; and the width across the base is 9 inches. 



Like all the true Buffaloes, both the East African species are almost desti- 

 tute of hair, a fact which seriously detracts from the appearance of mounted 

 heads. A land mammal which is hairless, or nearly so, should be covered with 

 compensatory scales, like the pangolin. 



The Senegambian (Plate VI, Fig. 2) and Congo Buffaloes (Plate VI, 

 Fig. 4), of West Africa, are small species with horns of a totally different 

 type from the Buffaloes of India and eastern Africa. Both these odd-looking, 

 short-horned species are represented in the collection. Two other species once 

 in the collection, the wild Yak and the Banting, were lost by exchange, and 

 never recovered. Thus far good horns of the Gayal have been sought in vain, 

 but it is hoped that the lines now out in Burma will yield them. 



THE DEER FAMILY 



Where is the big-game sportsman or mammalogist, young or old, who is 

 not keenly interested in one or more members of the Deer Family! Hunt where 

 you will outside of Africa, Australia, and Polynesia and if there remains big 

 game of any species, you surely will find some species of deer. Even the 

 African antelopes do not embrace as wide a range of variations as we find 

 within the boundaries of the Cervidae. Consider the zoological family which 

 includes the colossal Moose, the cold-defying Caribou, the host of round- 

 horned deer, and the tiny hornless deer of the East Indies, no larger than a 

 rabbit. One of the most difficult tasks in forming the animal collections of 

 the New York Zoological Park has been to bring together in one group rep- 

 resentatives of eight very important but little known species of Asia. 



