492 BOVlDjE. 



General form heavy, bjdy massive, legs thick and short, hoofs 

 large. Tail reaching the hocks (but, I think, variable in length). 

 Eibs 13 pairs. Hair on the body very thin, especially in old 

 animals. Muzzle large and square. Head carried very low. 



Skull elongate, nasals long, forehead nearly flat. Horns very 

 large, flattened, transversely rugose, trigonal in section, tapering 

 slowly and gradually from the base, curving at first upward, 

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

 curve increasing towards the ends, where the horns curve inwards 

 and a little forwards. The horns depart but little from one plane 

 throughout. In some (macrocerus of Hodgson) the horns are almost 

 straight till near the end, where they turn more rapidly upward. 



Colour throughout dark ashy, almost black. The legs are 

 sometimes whitish ; in some tame forms the legs are white to the 

 same height as in the Gaur. Horns black. 



Dimensions. According to Jerdon (who probably took the figures 

 from Hodgson) and others, the wild buffalo measures in height up 

 to 6 feet, and in length from snout to root of tail 10^. Kinloch, 

 however (' Large Game Shooting,' ed. 2, pp. 88, 91), doubts if any 

 exceed 5 ft. 4 in. in height (16 hands), and gives the following 

 measurements of a good-sized bull : height 5 ft., length from nose 

 to root of tail 9 ft. 7 in. ; tail 3 ft. 11 in. ; girth 8 ft. 3 in. ; length 

 of horns from tip to tip round curve 8 ft. 3 in. This is a common 

 way of measuring buffalo horns. The longest recorded single horn 

 known, one in the British Museum, measures 78 inches, which 

 would give an outside sweep of about 14 feet. Cows' horns are 

 longer than bulls', but of less girth. Basal length of a large bull's 

 skull 22-8 inches, orbital breadth 10-25. 



Distribution. Plains of the Brahmaputra and Ganges from the 

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

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

 also plains in the Eastern Central Provinces (Mandla, Eaipur, 

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

 and Pranhita rivers, and perhaps a little beyond. Wild buffaloes 

 are wanting in Southern and Western India, but abundant in 

 Northern Ceylon. Some buffaloes are also found in the wild state 

 in Burma and the Malay Peninsula, but it is uncertain whether they 

 are not descended from herds escaped from captivity. 



Varieties. Besides the two forms, one with horns approaching a 

 circle (spirocerus of Hodgson) and the other with horns nearly 

 straight at first and turned up at the end (macrocerus of Hodgson), 

 there is a very distinct race of a dun colour that inhabits Upper 

 Assam. I have seen two heads of bulls, one in Mr. Hume's 

 collection now in the British Museum, the other in the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. These differ in the much more convex forehead, 

 and the skull is remarkably short in front of the orbits, the nasals 

 being shorter than the distance from their posterior end to the 

 vertex, whilst in ordinary buffaloes they are longer. This difference 

 is so great that the form requires a distinctive name, and may be 

 called Bos bubalus, v&r.fulvus, or the dun buffalo. 



