THE BUFFALO 201 



The Cape buffalo is too familiar a beast to need 

 minute description. Standing about five feet at the 

 shoulder, the bull of this species is a singularly 

 strong, massive, and short-legged beast, black in 

 hue, having a short face, large flapping ears, thickly 

 fringed with black hair, and enormously massive 

 horns. In the older bulls the immense bosses 

 at the base of the horns are practically united and 

 present a rugged mass of enormous thickness. The 

 horns themselves measure, in good specimens, as 

 much as 45 inches in width ; one pair reach the 

 huge proportions of 49 1 inches. A stroke from 

 a buffalo's horn, delivered with the enormous weight 



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of the beast behind it, is, if in the region of a vital 

 part, almost certainly fatal, and many a hunter has 

 been slain or badly injured by these fierce and 

 courageous beasts. The cows are of somewhat 

 slighter build and carry less massive horns. The 

 buffalo fears nothing, and, when his blood is up 

 and he has been wounded or annoyed, is one of 

 the most dangerous of all African game animals. 

 Selous himself had, years ago, one of his narrowest 

 escapes from one of these animals, which charged 

 him, overturned horse and man, badly hurt the 

 hunter himself, and so severely injured the horse 

 that it had to be shot. After receiving a bullet a 

 buffalo will probably betake himself to thick bush, 

 there to conceal himself against the approach of 

 the sportsman. Lurking behind some angle of the 

 thicket, or even lying concealed behind some low 

 patch of scrub, he will, without a moment's warning, 



