G42 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



of the name bison help us materially ; for the true bison is not our species, 

 but the European form mentioned above. The whole case is involved in 

 a confusion which promises to last for a considerable time. The buffalo 

 of the East Indies occurs in a wild state as well as in domestication. 

 Tame, it is a valuable servant, working well and furnishing a small quan- 

 tity of rather strong-smelling milk ; but wild, it is one of the game animals. 

 Its temper is uncertain, while its strength and courage are such as to have 



"tt^\#^' Flfi - 506. — Zebu, or holy cow of India (Bibos indicus). 



led the Indian poets to compare its onslaught to that of the tiger. When 

 wounded it will charge again and again with great ferocity, and if the 

 hunter be not well mounted, or if he have no tree to shelter him, he is apt 

 to Buffer for his temerity. The African buffaloes are no less formidable 



accounts of 



exciting 



antagonists, and every traveler's diary contains 

 struggles with this game. The hides of both make excellent leather, and 

 so assiduously have the African species been pursued that one has now to 

 go many miles north from the Cape of Good Hope before falling in with 



