THE BUFFALO 205 



The body colouring has occasionally a ruddy tinge, 

 and the horns are smaller, more flattened, and less 

 formidable. The finest known pair of horns of 

 this buffalo have a spread of 3 feet 8 inches, but 

 average horns reach about 2 feet 6 or 8 inches. 

 This buffalo is found in Abyssinia, the southern 

 regions of Somaliland, and portions of the Eastern 

 Soudan as far as the White Nile. In habits, it 

 resembles almost precisely its bigger relative, and it 

 is, when wounded, fully as fierce, courageous, and 

 formidable. 



The Senegambian buffalo (Bos caffer planiceros}, of 

 which very little is at present known, is dark brown in 

 colour, with horns much shorter, blunter, and thicker 

 than those of the Abyssinian species. No English 

 hunters seem as yet to have recorded their experience 

 of this beast. Few have pursued or shot it. 



The Congo or Dwarf buffalo (B. c, nanus} is found 

 over a large extent of West Africa, ranging from 

 Senegambia to Benguela. Over all this country, 

 ranging a long way into the hinterland, it is widely 

 distributed. Large herds seem to be unknown, and 

 the animals are found most usually in pairs or solitary ; 

 occasionally, however, a herd of as many as twenty is 

 met with. All over West Africa the beast is known 

 as the " bush-cow " ; native names are in Hausa, 

 bona ; Yoruba, effon ; Igara, effa ; Igbira, ay a. This 

 buffalo stands as a rule less than four feet in height, 

 and has been well compared in general appearance with 

 a miniature Alderney, being a compact, shapely little 

 beast, quite devoid of the heavy appearance of the 



