CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 9. RUMINANTIA. 489 



the rhinoceros, to the most swampy sites of the district they inhabit. There is no animal upon 

 which ages of domesticity have made so small an impression as upon this species, the tame being 

 still most clearly referable to the wild ones at present frequenting all the great swampy jungles of 

 India. The latter live in large herds, but in the season of love the most lusty males lead off and 

 appropriate several females, with which they form small herds for the time. The wild buffalo is 

 fully one-third larger than the largest tame breeds, the body measuring ten and a half feet in 

 length, and six or six and a half feet high at the shoulders, and it is of such power and vigor as by 

 his charge frequently to prostrate a well-sized elephant. It is remarkable for the shortness of the 

 tail, which does not extend lower than the hock, for the tufts which cover the forehead and knees, 

 and lastly, for the great size of its horns. They are uniformly in high condition, so unlike the 

 leanness and angularity of the domestic buffalo, even at its best. With this species the period of 

 gestation is ten months, and one or two are produced at a birth. 



The strength and courage of this animal are well displayed in the following extract from Basil 

 Hall's "Travels in India:" 



■• We were promised a grand day's sport one afternoon, when a buffalo and a tiger were to be 

 pitted against each other. The buffalo entered the ring composedly enough ; but after looking 

 about him, turned to one side, and rather pettishly, as if he had felt a little bilious, overturned a 

 vessel of water placed there expressly for his use. The tiger refused for a long time to make his 

 appearance, and it was not till his den was filled with smoke and fire that he sprang out. The 

 buffalo charged his enemy in a moment, and by one furious push capsized him right over. To 

 our great disappointment, the tiger pocketed this insult in the shabbiest manner imaginable, and 

 passing on, leaped furiously at the ropes, with which his feet became entangled, so that the buf- 

 falo was enabled to punish his antagonist about the rump most ingloriously. When at length 

 the tiger got loose, he slunk off to a distant part of the area, lay down, and pretended to be dead. 

 The boys, however, soon put him up again, and tried to bring him to the scratch with squibs and 

 crackers, and a couple of dozen dogs being introduced at the same moment, they all set at him, 

 but only one ventured to take any liberty with the enraged animal. This bold dog actually caught 

 the tiger by the tail, but a slight pat of the mighty monster's paw crushed the yelping cur as flat 

 as a board. The buffalo, who really appeared anxious to have a fair stand -up fight, now drove 

 the dogs off, and repeatedly poked the tiger with his nose, and even turned him half over several 

 times with his horns. 



"We had then a fight between two buffaloes, which ran their heads against each other with a 

 crash that one could fancy shook the palace to its very foundation ; indeed, the only wonder was 

 how both animals did not fall down dead with their skulls fractured. But there appears to be a 

 wonderful degree of thickness or hardness in this part of the animal." 



The African Buffalo, so called in distinction from the preceding, which is called the Indian 

 Buffalo, is the B. Cafer of naturalists, and is often called the Cape Buffalo, it having been for- 

 merly very common at the Cape. It is of the size of the largest ox, is of a rough, shaggy, wild 

 appearance, and in a state of nature is altogether a savage and formidable brute. It is specially 

 distinguished by its enormous horns, which are of a more solid and compact texture than those 

 of any other species of Bos, resembling, in fact, the substance of the horns of the antelope ; the 

 bases of these, which extend in two large protuberances nearly across the forehead, form a pow- 

 erful battery, by which the animal breaks and dashes through the thick branches of the forest. 

 They live in large herds, and though they generally fly from man, when wounded become exceed- 

 ingly dangerous. Sometimes, also, they will make sudden and fierce attacks upon hunters and 

 travelers whom they chance to meet in their haunts. All the genus have a dislike to red colors, 

 and when one of these creatures is excited in this way, it attacks the offensive object with great 

 ferocity. 



, This species delight in wallowing in the mire, and when heated, throw --themselves into the 

 water. Their hair, consisting mostly of a mane and beard, and patches on parts, of the body, is rough 

 and shaggy, and is nearly black ; the skin of the hinder parts is almost naked ; the horns are four 

 to five feet long, and the tips sometimes five feet apart. The hide is exceedingly thick and tough, 

 ;and resembles that of the rhinoceros ; it is much sought after for harnesses. 



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