Indian Buffalo Shooting. \ 2 7 



thirteen feet eight inches, whilst straight across the 

 tips the distance was six feet six inches. Immense 

 as were these horns, I am not sure whether I did 

 not see a pair fully their equal in Burma. Near 

 T'seben, a favourite spot of mine for snipe, there 

 was an albino cow in a herd. When she threw back 

 her head, elevating the nostrils, each horn lay along 

 the back and reached almost to the root of the tail. 

 They must each have been nearer seven feet than 

 six if not even more. I coveted those horns. The 

 price of an ordinary buffalo in Burma in those days 

 was Bs.50, but the owner, seeing how anxious I was 

 to secure his cow, would not take less than Rs.200, 

 which I declined to give him. Although buffaloes 

 inhabit remote and swampy localities, they at times 

 do a great deal of damage to cultivation, as they are 

 fearless and often refuse to be driven off. In the 

 wild state, they wander about the same jungles, and 

 herd in company with elephants and rhinoceros. A 

 Burmese elephant, often a timid creature with most 

 wild animals, cares little for a buffalo, as he is so used 

 to the tame cattle, and fails to see any difference 

 between those that are denizens of the jungles, and 

 those that are kept for domestic purposes. The 

 buffalo's forehead is narrow and convex, horns black, 

 colour blackish slate, hair scant. There are occasional 

 albinos, both tame and wild. In size they are almost 

 the same as a rhinoceros. I measured a large bull 

 as he lay dead twelve feet to the root of the tail 

 from the tip of the nose ; tail, two and a half feet ; 

 height, six feet two inches ! The thickest horns I 

 ever got were from the very first buffalo I killed in 

 Burma ; they were not long, but each horn measured 



