PART V. 

 CATTLB, 



CHAPTER XCIV. 



BUFFALOES. 



sub-family Bovine belonging to the tribe Ruminants 

 is divided into three main groups: (i) the Bisontine 

 to which belongs the yak of Central Asia ; (2) the Taurine 

 or oxen proper, subdivided again into (a) the Zebus (Bos 

 Indicus) or humped oxen of India, (b) the Taurus (Bos 

 Longifrons), the humpless cylindrical horned cattle of Europe, 

 and (c) the Gavazus, humpless somewhat flattened horned 

 cattle of India and South-Eastern Asia ; and (3) the Bubaline 

 comprising the wild and the domesticated buffaloes. These 

 are the animals ordinarily known as cattle. 



967. Wild Buffaloes. The milk of the buffalo being 

 twice as rich in butter as the milk of kine, buffaloes should 

 be considered as a very valuable farm animal. In dry heat 

 buffaloes are not so useful for draught purposes as oxen, but 

 on the whole, they are superior cart and plough animals. 

 Buffaloes are found in the wild state in the Himalayan Terai 

 from Oudh to Bhutan and in the plains of Bengal as far west 

 as Tirhut, but chiefly along the Brahmaputra, and in the 

 Sundarbans. They also inhabit the table-lands of Central 

 India as far south as the Godavery, also Ceylon, Burmah and 

 the Malayan Peninsula. They live in the margins of forests 

 rather than in the interior and they never ascend the moun- 



