BUFFALO 



BOS CAFFER 

 SWAHILI : M'BOGO. MASAI : OL-LARO AND OL-OSOWAN 



f r: : ""^HIS is an animal which I must ap- 



^ proach, as regards its habits, with great 



J diffidence, as this is only my own small 



experience, and other people may 



know so much more about them. It is true I 



have had the most exciting morning of my life 



with them, as I shall show in a sketch at the end 



of this, and that is, to all intents and purposes, 



one of very few encounters compared with the 



chances I have had of observing the habits of 



other game animals. 



The buffalo stands about fifteen hands high, 

 and has a thickish black skin covered sparsely 

 with black hairs. His legs are very short indeed 

 compared with his height, so that his bulk is 

 enormous. The skin under the neck is abnorm- 

 ally thick, on account, I suppose, of the fact that 

 he has to make his way through the thickest of 

 thick bush, which he does with his head up. 

 When he charges, on the other hand, his head 

 goes down, and the enormous horny bosses on 



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