252 THE RING OF NATURE 



cattle give increase nearly every year, and every 

 calf dropped strengthens the opinion of those 

 who say that it is not a true wild breed, but an 

 artificial one, for whereas the herd-masters of 

 Chillingham and Chartley will have it that the 

 colour of the breed is white, the calves at the Zoo 

 are nearly always black. 



Near the hump-backed American bison with 

 blood-shot eyes is another animal with a far more 

 peaceable cast of countenance, but a far more 

 implacable temper. The abiding rage of the 

 African dwarf buffalo is the most terrible thing 

 the Zoo has to show. We can understand the 

 frenzy of a newly caged beast. It is like the rage 

 of a newly caught criminal. Anger, says the 

 poet, is short madness, but what is the anger that 

 lasts unabated for months and years ? The dwarf 

 buffalo, more than ten years a prisoner, rages 

 round its pen apparently every minute of every 

 hour of every day. They dare not put it in the 

 yard. Once they tried the experiment, and the 

 first thing it did was to charge furiously at some 

 one it saw through the railings, nearly knocking 

 down even that ponderous structure. The blind, 

 indomitable rage of the species seems to have 

 reacted on the organism by enlarging the base 

 of the horns till they form one solid boss of 

 battering-ram. Sharp horns are not a sign of 

 such inveterate anger. The sharp-horned of our 

 domestic breeds are commonly good natured ; 

 if a little fiery when roused, at least soon quiet 



