THE CAPE BUFFALO. 



As the bison represents the great game animals of 

 Europe, so is the African buffalo pre-eminently 

 typical of the Dark Continent. Sturdy, powerful, 

 and courageous, it is remarkably interesting, studied 

 merely for its own sake ; but various side issues 

 invest it with an additional importance perhaps 

 equalled by no other wild beast. Buffalo's blood 

 harbours the Trypanosoma brucii which, sucked up 

 into the proboscis of the tse tse fly, kill wholesale 

 the horses and oxen which it bites ; buffalo sus- 

 ceptibility to rinderpest has spread this scourge far 

 and wide in Africa, causing fearful destruction 

 amongst wild game and domestic cattle. Thus the 

 study of zoology is no mere relaxation for amateurs, 

 but in its everyday aspect has a very practical 

 bearing on the progress of colonisation. 



The Cape buffalo (Bos ca/er)buffel of the Cape 

 Dutch nyati of the Zanzibaris in its typical race 

 stands about 4 feet 8 inches high at the shoulders, 

 and measures some 12 feet in extreme length, 

 allowing 3 feet for the tail. The head is helmeted 

 with a stout boss formed by the bases of the strong 

 uncinate horns which, passing outward with a bold 

 sweep, may attain a length of 3 feet measured over 

 the curve. The muzzle, large and expanded, is 

 moist and naked ; the eyes have a hollow below the 



