CHAP. i. BUFFALO. 27 



from the rest, and after hiding her offspring in the long 

 grass, remains within a quarter of a mile or so, visiting it 

 at short intervals. As soon as it is strong enough to 

 follow her she rejoins the herd, but hangs about the out- 

 skirts without entering it, and when danger threatens 

 usually leaves the calf in some shady out-of-the-way spot, 

 and provides for her own safety, sometimes when wounded 

 entirely deserting it. 



I remember once shooting a cow which had no vestige 

 of an udder, and though this took place on the 1 6th May 

 1871, yet she proved to be heavy in calf. I fancy that 

 she must have been born so, as no hyena would have had 

 the daring to attack a buffalo, though they not unfre- 

 quently seize cattle by this part and tear it away. If so, 

 it would seem to bear out two assertions that I have 

 heard native hunters make, and the latter of which I 

 quite agree with ; one being that the calves suck any of 

 the cows which may happen to have milk, without refer- 

 ence to which has given them birth, and that if the 

 mother happens to be killed, or, as in this case, has no 

 milk, her offspring is adopted by the herd ; and the other 

 that, as with cattle, a certain number have their young 

 at irregular periods, though the greater part calve at a 

 certain fixed time. 



A cow with a young calf is the most dangerous animal 

 of the kind that can be met with, as indeed I have per- 

 sonally good cause to know. I remember in 1869 seeing 

 from a considerable distance a hunter of mine catch a 

 young calf which got up out of the long grass in front of 

 him; the little beast immediately commenced to bellow 

 lustily, and I saw the mother emerge from a thicket 



