76 HISTORY OF THE BUFFALO. 



We shall, therefore, only further remark here that those 

 species of the genus los which have been sometimes classed 

 and described as bisons, and which are all natives of south 

 eastern Asia, partake more of the characters of one or other 

 of the remaining groups of the genus bos than they do of 

 those of the true bisons, whether we consider the eastern 

 species or the American as the most typical. 



THE AFRICAN BUFFALO. 



Bubals cafer* 



PLATE x. 



THE Buffalo of the Cape has often been confounded with 

 the animal of Southern Europe ; but it is entirely of differ 

 ent form, and is a much more ferocious and dangerous 

 animal, and has never yet been domesticated, or used for 

 any laborious purpose. It is an animal, Burchell remarks? 

 found nowhere but in the extra tropical part of Southern 

 Africa, and is widely distinct from every other species of 

 the ox tribe, and most remarkable by its horns, which, 

 though not of more than ordinary or proportional length, 

 are so unusually broad at their base, as to cover their whole 

 forehead, and give to it the appearance of a mass of rock ; 

 an appearance to which the ruggedness and unevenness of 

 their surface greatly contribute. Its countenance exhibits 

 a savage and malevolent expression. Its bulk far exceeds 

 that of the ox, although its height is not much greater ; but 

 it is altogether more robust and strongly made. Its muzzle, 

 when not young, is but thinly covered with short scattered 

 black hair ; that on the under lip, and about the corners of 



