ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 539 



During the past few decades the Wild Indian Buffalo has suf- 

 fered serious reduction in numbers. It "requires strict protection 

 if it is not to be exterminated" (Bombay Natural History Society, 

 in Hit.,- December, 1936). 



"General form heavy, body massive, legs thick and short, hoofs 

 large. Tail reaching the hocks .... Hair on the body very thin, 

 especially in old animals. . . . Head carried very low. . . . 

 Horns very large, flattened, transversely rugose, trigonal in section, 

 tapering slowly and gradually from the base, curving at first up- 

 ward, outward, and slightly backward from the plane of the face, 

 the curve increasing towards the ends, where the horns curve in- 

 wards and a little forwards. . . . Colour throughout dark ashy, 

 almost black. The legs are sometimes whitish .... Horns black." 

 (Blanford, 1891, p. 492.) The height at the shoulder may reach 

 6 feet. 



Owing to the uncertain status of the Long-horned Indian Buffalo 

 (B. macrocerus] , it is difficult to state the maximum length of horn 

 in B. b. arnee. Inverarity (1895, p. 41) considers a 57-inch horn 

 unusually long for a Buffalo of the Central Provinces. 



Blanford (1891, p. 492) gives the range (without regard to sub- 

 species) as "plains of the Brahmaputra and Ganges from the eastern 

 end of Assam to Tirhoot, and the Terai as far west as Rohilcund, 

 the plains near the coast in Midnapore and Orissa, and also plains 

 in the Eastern Central Provinces (Mandla, Raipur, Sambalpur, 

 Bastar, and other districts) as far south as the Godavari and 

 Pranhita rivers, and perhaps a little beyond." 



Blanford adds (p. 493) : "Buffaloes associate in herds, often of 

 large size. I have seen 50 together, and have heard of much 

 larger assemblages. . . . They commit great havoc amongst grow- 

 ing crops. Sometimes a herd or a solitary bull will take possession 

 of a field and keep off the men who own it. ... A herd will attack 

 a tiger or other dangerous animal without hesitation." 



Kinloch (1892, p. 124) refers to the Buffalo as "extremely abun- 

 dant" in Assam. "It is also to be met with in suitable localities on 

 the banks of many of the great rivers and swamps in Bengal 

 Proper, and immense herds inhabit the unreclaimed portions of the 

 Sunderbuns." 



"The buffalo, though by no means so bloodthirsty and dangerous 

 an animal as he is generally described to be, charges sufficiently 

 often to render his pursuit on foot pleasureably exciting. In fact, I 

 think, he is more likely to charge when unwounded than any animal 

 I know." (Inverarity, 1895, p. 43.) Some of these charges result 

 fatally to the persons attacked. 



The general range at present is said to be nearly as extensive as 

 in Blanford 's time, though locally reduced. "The numerous herds 



