202 UNGULATES. 



bull recoiled and hesitated, and was eventually charged by his adversary full in the 

 shoulder, after which he declined to continue the contest. 



The Cape buffalo has been described as the most dangerous of all South 

 African animals, but both Mr. Drummond and Mr. Selous deny that this is really 

 the case. It is true that more fatal accidents occur in buffalo-shooting than in 

 any other sport, but this is discounted by the circumstance that more of these 

 animals are killed than any other large game. Although there are exceptions, 

 buffalo do not generally charge unless wounded; but cows with calves, or 

 individuals wounded by lions are more irritable, and more prone to charge than 

 ordinary. At the same time, the pursuit is far from being unaccompanied by 

 danger ; and Sir J. Willoughby states that of all the animals met with by him in 

 Eastern Africa " the buffalo is probably the most cunning and dangerous to attack ; 

 they become very savage when wounded, and usually take to the thick bush, 

 where they lie in wait for their foe. The greatest care should be taken in 

 following them up, as, on account of the denseness of the bush, it is next to 

 impossible for the hunter to avoid the sudden charge that is almost sure to ensue 

 if the buffalo sights him first. A cow can be killed by a bullet anywhere on the 

 forehead or behind the ear; but a bull is practically invulnerable in the head, 

 although it may be dropped by a lucky shot striking above the eyes in the narrow 

 line of division between the horns." 



THE SHORT-HORNED BUFFALO (Bos pumilus). 



The short-horned, or red buffalo, of which one variety is represented in the 

 figure on p. 201, and a second in the accompanying illustration, is a smaller animal 

 than the Cape species, from which it is further distinguished by its smaller and 

 much less massive horns, as well as by its more abundant and lighter-coloured hair. 

 This buffalo is a West African species, and is known to the natives as the niari, 

 and to the Europeans of the west coast as the bush-cow. It is found in most of 

 the tropical regions where the Cape buffalo is unknown, and is essentially a forest- 

 dwelling animal. The height of the animal is, as a rule, inferior to that of the 

 Cape buffalo. The colour of the hair is generally some shade of yellow or red, but 

 more rarely brown, although some individuals are much darker and nearly black. 

 The specimen figured in the illustration on p. 201, which came from Sierra Leone, 

 and was exhibited in the Zoological Gardens at Antwerp, in 1875, was light yellow 

 above but reddish on the under-parts, with a sharp line of demarcation between 

 the two areas. It will be observed from the figure that the horns are but little 

 flattened, and are separated from one another by a wide interval on the forehead, 

 and have a simple curvature ; these features being apparently distinctive of all the 

 specimens from the north-western portion of the creature's range. On the other 

 hand, when we pass southwards into the Congo district, we find that these buffaloes, 

 as shown in our second illustration, have the horns much more flattened and 

 expanded at their bases, where they are closely approximated in the middle line. 

 Their tips are also curved sharply upwards and inwards, terminating in a point. 

 This variety, which is also of rather larger size than the other, was described as 

 B. centralis, and approximates to the northern variety of the Cape buffalo. 



