CHAPTER X 



THE BUFFALO 



NEXT to the elephant in size, amongst Ceylon mammalia, 

 comes the buffalo, Bos bubalus. This animal is the same 

 as the Indian species, but, as usual in all cases where 

 similar species of animals exist in both India and Ceylon, 

 those of the former country have larger and more regular 

 horns. In India they seem almost all to curve boldly 

 outward and upwards, finally curving in towards each other 

 at the points. In Ceylon they are very irregular, and 

 usually much shorter, though occasionally they may be 

 more massive than Indian horns. The commonest form 

 are those curving outwards and upwards crescent form, but 

 not with the bold, almost half circular, sweep of the Indian 

 heads. The females' heads are much more irregular than 

 the males, the horns are thinner, and, whilst the fronts of 

 the horns in both sexes are corrugated, the corrugations 

 in those of the bull are much deeper. 



They are heavily-built, clumsy-looking animals, dark 

 ashy-grey in colour, thinly haired when young, bare 

 leathery hided when old. They have very massive 

 shoulders, the ridge of the back rising to its highest point 

 above them. The head is carried very low on a longish, 

 massive neck ; the ears are large, and muzzle very broad, and 

 the feet are broad and " splay," which makes them good 

 travellers in mud. A large wild bull will stand perhaps 

 5 feet in height at the shoulder. The wild buffalo is 

 usually larger than the domesticated animal. The latter 

 are used to plough paddy fields, to trample the paddy 



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