70 CATTLE 



forms of animals are classed as species rather than subspecies, and 

 the phases of the African buffalo are, therefore, accorded specific rank. 

 They are, however, here regarded in the light of local races of a single 

 variable animal. Since several of them are known at present merely 

 by the skull and horns, the form of the latter appendages is taken as the 

 main basis of classification. When tested by specimens in the collection 

 of the British Museum, the characters assigned to the different races 

 appear to a certain extent constant and fairly easy of recognition. 



The races are divided into two main groups, respectively typified 

 by the great black buffalo of the Cape and the small red buffalo of 

 the Congo. In the black buffaloes, as the members of the first group 

 are collectively designated, the massive horns are strongly bent back- 

 wards from the sides of the skull in such a manner that the front 

 aspect of their middle portion is situated far behind the plane of the 

 forehead. 



The first representative of the group is the Zambesi buffalo 

 {B. c. wtesei), typically from the middle part of the Zambesi valley 

 between Loangwa and Revegu, or near the point of entrance of the 

 Revabwe river. In common with those of the four following races, 



o * 



the horns curve sharply inwards from their point of maximum span 

 towards the middle line of the skull, while in this particular race the 

 backward flexure of their central portion is very pronounced, and the 

 outer part has also a backward trend, although the tips are not dis- 

 tinctly bent downwards. 



The Azrek buffalo (B. c. asracensis}, of the Bahr-el-Azrek, the 

 affluent of the Blue Nile forming the southern frontier of Abyssinia, 

 presents a nearly similar inward curvature of the horns from the point 

 of greatest span, but the backward trend is much less marked, and the 

 tips have a distinct downward bend. 



In the Limpopo race {B. c. limpopoensis] the outer part of the 

 horns lacks a backward trend, while (in contradistinction to those of 

 the preceding races) the horns extend forwards considerably in advance 

 of the plane of the boss formed by their bases, which is very greatly 

 developed. The type skull came from Gasaland, but a pair of horns 

 obtained by Mr. F. H. Barber near the Sabi river, and here figured, as 

 well as a head from Nuanetsi depicted by Mr. J. G. Millais in A Breath 

 from the Veldt, belong to this or a closely allied race. 



The horns of the Ankoli buffalo (B. c. raddiffet), from south-west 

 Uganda, differ by the extreme flatness of their basal portions, which 

 do not form a prominent boss. 



With the Orange river race (B. c. gariepensis], from the district 



