162 MAMMALIA ORDER VLUNGULATA. 



inhabits North America, and a small aberrant form is found in the Island of 

 Celebes. 



The latter species, which is known as the anoa (B. depressicornis), is the 

 smallest and most antelope-like member of the whole group, having the 

 short angulated horns directed nearly upwards from the forehead, and the 

 colour black, with a few white spots on the hind quarters. Another small 

 but more buffalo-like form (B. mindorensis) inhabits the Philippine Islands, 

 where it is locally known as the tamarao, but it is not certain whether this 

 miy not prove to be a hybrid between the anoa and the Indian buffalo 

 The true buffaloes are characterised by their more or less angulated horns 

 and convex forehead. Of these, the Indian buffalo (B. bubalus) has its home 

 in the Oriental countries, but has been introduced as a domesticated animal 

 into Egypt and the South of Europe. Ib is a huge, ungainly brute, with the 

 long horns flattened and angulated throughout their length ; those of the 

 bulls being very thick and curving upwards in a crescentic form, while those of 

 the cows are slender and directed more immediately outwards. In their 

 habits these buffaloes are essentially marsh-haunting animals, loving to 

 wallow in the soft, warm mud of such situations. The skin of old animals is 

 almost devoid of hair. The Cape buffalo (B. caffer) is a very different- 

 looking animal, with a shorter 

 ekull and horns than the Indian 

 species ; the bases of the horns 



growing together in a kind of 

 helmet-like mass on t 



the fore- 

 head, where they nearly meet in 

 the middle line ; these append- 

 ages curving downwards at their 

 origin from the skull, and then 

 taking an inward direction, while 

 their tips are almost cylindrical. 

 The black skin is nearly naked, 

 but the ears are margined with a 

 fringe of elongated hairs. la 

 certain forms from Central 

 Fig. 90. CAPE BUFFALO (Bos ca/er Africa the hairs on the skin are 



reddish in colour, and the horns 



smaller and less expanded and approximative on the forehead. This form 

 grades almost imperceptibly into a smaller variety or species known as 

 B. pumilus, in which the small horns are very widely separated from one 

 another at their bases. 



The bisons differ from the buffaloes by their cylindrical horns, which are 

 placed rather low down on the forehead ; the latter being very wide and 

 convex, and the whole skull comparatively short and wide. In the skeleton 

 the number of pairs of ribs may be either fourteen or fifteen. In place of 

 the nearly-naked or sparsely-haired hide of the buffaloes, the bisons have an 

 abundant coat of short, thick, crisp, curly brown hair over the greater part 

 of the body, while the head, neck, shoulders, and fore limbs are clothed 

 with a massive mane of longer and darker hair, almost hiding the ears, and 

 concealing the bases of the horns, as well as shading the eyes. The great 

 elevation of the withers, as compared with the hind quarters, gives the 

 appearance of a large hump behind the neck. Of the two species, the 

 European bison (B. bison) is now confined to the Caucasus, Lithuania, and 



