BUFFALO 5 



Belgian Congo, as Bos caffer simpsoni. In their heavily fringed ears 

 and the general form of the horns these buffaloes approximate to the 

 small red B. c. nattus, but the horns are larger, the right one of a bull 

 measuring 25^ inches along the outer curve and the left one 24^ inches; 

 the basal girth of the former being 16^ inches, its maximum width 

 6f inches, and the expanse from tip to tip 13^ inches. In a cow the 

 left horn measured 1 5 inches in length, with a girth of 9^, and an 

 expanse of 8f inches. In profile the horns incline upwards nearly in 

 the plane of the face. The colour of cows and bulls is pure brown, 

 much darker than the tawny red of nanns the young only agreeing 

 approximately in hue with the latter, and the cows being fully as dark 

 as bulls. Usually the fringes of the ears are tinged with tawny, with 

 one white lock. 



In the same paper a pair of horns brought home by Dr. K. W. 

 Kumm from the upper Shari valley, in the Lake Chad district, is 

 provisionally referred to B. c. thierryi, a race typically from Togoland, 

 German West Africa. 



The Shari horns are deeper in the antero-posterior direction at 

 their bases, where they are more expanded and flattened, and also 

 more closely approximated in the middle line than in the type of 

 thierryi; but since the latter is a female there seems no reason why 

 they should not pertain to the same race. 



The above paper also contains a note on two heads of red buffaloes 

 from French Congo, which appear inseparable from B. c. cottoni of the 

 Semliki. 



Another, but at present unnamed race of dwarf buffalo inhabits 

 the Yala district of southern Nigeria, and is characterised by the bulls 

 being brownish black and the cows dun or khaki-coloured. Bulls 

 stand from 3^ to 4 ft. at the withers, and are short -legged and 

 heavily built animals. In the adults of both sexes the legs are light- 

 coloured from the knees and hocks to the hoofs. Calves are dark 

 grey. 



Specimens of the Senegambian B. c. planiceros brought from the 

 Gambia by Mr. Russell Roberts in 1910 show that this race is con- 

 siderably larger than B, c. nanus, with the horns more laterally expanded 

 and recurved, and the general colour brown. 



It may be added that in the Proceedings of the Biological Society 

 of Washington for 1911, vol. xxiv. p. 191, Mr. N. Hollister expresses 

 the opinion that as the African buffalo is so distinct from the Indian 

 species it ought not to be included in Bubalus ; if this view be accepted, 

 the name Syncerus is available as a subgeneric title. 



