ANIMALS. 5'15 



it is known to propagate with the bison, to which it has, in point 

 of form, but a very distant similitude. 



The b'offalo is, upon the whole, by no means so beautiful 

 a creature as the cow ; his figure is more clumsy and awkward ; 



group of true buffaloes, both wild and tame, which Baron Cuvier's in- 

 restigations refer to one species, divided into mere varieties. It appears 

 that the wild buffalo in the central districts of Bengal, is commonly named 

 Arnee or Amaa, and distinguished by the lunate form of the horns 

 and black colour ; while the second sort, usually but not always do. 

 raestic, is known by the appellation of hhain or byne. Of this sort, 

 the horns are much shorter, bent back towards the neck with the 

 points turned upwards: thus constructed, their arms are but indifferent 

 instruments of attack, and serve only to lift, while in the former they 

 are invariably used for goring. But neither of these are the gigan. 

 tic or taurelephant arnee, which appears to be a rare species, only 

 found single or in small families, in the upper eastern provinces and forests 

 at the foot of Himalaya, though formerly met in the Raraghur districts. It 

 is probably the same which the Mugs and Burmas name Phang, and con- 

 sider next to the tiger the most dangerous and fiercest animals of their 

 forests. A party of officers of the British cavalry, stationed iu the north of 

 Bengal, went on a three months' hunting expedition to the eastnard, and 

 destroyed in that time forty-two tigers, but only one arnee, though nu. 

 merous wild buffaloes became their quarry. When the head of this specimen 

 rested perpendicular on the ground, it required the outstretched arms of a 

 man to hold the points of the horns. These are described as angular, with 

 Uie broadest side to the rear, the two others anterior and inferior, wrinkled, 

 brownish, standing outwards, not bent back, straight for near two-thirds of 

 their length, then curving inwards with the tips rather back ; the face is 

 nearly straight, and the breadth of the forehead is ciuried down with little 

 diminution to the foremost grinder. The best figure, we are assured, is in 

 Captain Williamson's Oriental Field Sports. 



Captain Williamson evidently speaks of the true arnee in the anecdote, 

 where one of those animals pursued a sportsman to his elephant, and ran its 

 horns under his belly to lift him up. This individual was killed, and was up. 

 wards of six feet high at the shoulder, nearly three feet in breadth at the 

 breast, and the horns five feet and a half long. 



The other or common arnee is also a very large animal, though nearly a 

 foot lower at the shoulders than that last mentioned. It is not much less in 

 weight ; the head is smaller, the body longer, the tail reaching to near the 

 heels, and the hide more scantily covered with hair. These are much more 

 common, live gregariously in woody swamps or plains, occasionally floating 

 in whole droves down the Ganges, seemingly asleep, until the current lands 

 them on some island, or on the bank : boats are sometimes endangered by 

 sailing in among them unawares. They are said to plunge under water, and 

 raise aquatic plants with their horn to the surface, where they feed on them, 

 while driving with the stream. An animal of this kind drifted down to near 

 Shaugur Island, in 171)0, and was shot by the crew of the Uawkesbury India- 

 man, towed alongside, and hoisted in ; the meat weighed three hundred and 



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