THE WILD BUFFALO 



According to Rowland Ward, the record horns 

 of the wild buffalo are a pair in the British 

 Museum, each measuring 77-! inches in length, and 

 17^ in girth at the base. The sex of the animal 

 which carried these magnificent trophies is not 

 stated. A single bull's horn, also in the same 

 museum and quoted by Ward, measures 77^ inches 

 in length, its girth measurement being exactly 

 the same as that of the former pair. General 

 Kinloch says that the horns of the bull, measured 

 from the tip of one across the forehead to the 

 tip of the other, usually attain a length of about 

 8 feet, with a girth measurement of about 

 1 6 inches, those of the cow being usually longer, 

 though slenderer. He states, however, that he 

 has heard, on the best authority, of a pair of bull's 

 horns measuring by the said method 12 feet 



7 inches, and thick in proportion, and has also 

 heard of a cow's head measuring 13 feet. He 

 personally bagged a bull whose head measured 



8 feet 3 inches. Lieutenant-Colonel R. Heber 

 Percy, in the Badminton volume, considers about 

 8 feet in length, and 16 inches in girth at the base, 

 the average measurements of a good bull's head. 



The wild buffalo is certainly a cranky, bad- 

 tempered and " three-cornered " brute (his tame 

 congeners in Assam and on the Nilgiri hills are 

 just the same), and he is as obstinate as a mule. 

 He is liable to attack without provocation, though 

 instances of such action on his part are compara- 

 tively infrequent. When wounded, however, a 

 wild buffalo is a very savage and dangerous 



