206 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



Cape buffalo. The colour is warm rufous, in the 

 young animals a lighter red, while the old bulls, 

 having lost much of their coat, are of a dark- 

 brown hue. The horns, flatfish in front, curve 

 rapidly upwards, and are much sharper at the tips 

 than the blunt trophies of the Senegambian species. 

 A good pair will measure a little under two feet over 

 the outside curve. These animals frequent partially 

 bushed country near water, lying up in thick covert 

 during the hot hours. Apparently they are nothing 

 like so dangerous a quarry as the grim Cape buffalo. 

 Nigeria and the Congo State are probably the best 

 countries to hunt them in at the present day. They 

 are shy, wary beasts, possessed of the keenest scent 

 and hearing, and extremely difficult to come across, 

 and their trophies are in much esteem among West 

 African sportsmen. 



The Lake Chad buffalo (B. c. brachyceros] is 

 almost unknown even to scientists. It appears to 

 form another link between the Cape and the 

 Abyssinian species. A pair or two of horns brought 

 home many years ago by the famous travellers, 

 Captain Denham and Colonel Clapperton, are to be 

 seen in the Natural History Museum. The horns 

 of this buffalo are more lunate in shape than those 

 of the Cape buffalo, and much inferior in strength. 

 They are also much smoother at the base, apparently 

 completely lacking the rugged and boss-like develop- 

 ment, typical of a good specimen of the Common 

 buffalo. They are, on the other hand, more spread- 

 ing than those of the Congo and Senegambian species. 



