HABITATS OF THE HERBIVORA. 297 



of their companions, and pursue the hunters to the uttermost. In 

 their excesses of fury they strike the ground with their horns ; dash 

 their bodies against the trees in which their enemies have taken 

 refuge; sometimes they will spend their rage upon one another, 

 or upon the bodies of those of their kind which have been brought 

 low. 



Asia is the home of the Common Buffalo (Bos bubalus), and from 

 thence he has migrated into several islands of the Indian Archipelago, 

 Eastern Europe, and even into Italy. In France and Great Bri- 

 tain he has long been domesticated. But there also exist in several 

 Indian provinces some savage species of the Arnee Buffalo (Bos 

 Ami of I)r. Shaw), easily recognized by his horns of prodigious size 

 and length, which frequently measure six feet in length, and eighteen 

 inches in circumference at the base. 



Travellers have asserted that nearly all the herbivora, and in 

 particular the more feeble and timorous, evince a marked preference 

 for open and level places; to such an extent, that the herds of ante- 

 lopes, gazelles, and zebras may be seen abandoning their pastures 

 when the herbage is unusually luxuriant. It is in the thickets, the 

 matted and almost impenetrable jungles, and among the tall rank 

 grasses, that the beast of prey glides stealthily and unseen upon his 

 intended victim. Where the surface of the ground is smooth and 

 bare, the herbivora can descry an approaching enemy, and take to 

 flight or make ready for defence. It is not, however/ the carnaria 

 that they have most cause to dread, but man; not less cruel he than 

 the stealthy lion or the prowling tiger, and far more formidable since 

 European commerce has furnished the savage with firearms. He 

 quickly learns to make use of these ; but prior to their introduction 

 into wilderness, prairie, and forest, he had devised against his prey 

 various more or less successful means of destruction. 



In Central Africa, for instance, the Bakouain Negroes, to capture 

 en masse buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, antelopes, and even rhinoceroses, 

 which gather in crowds around the grateful waters, construct a colossal 

 and all-devouring snare, which they call a Hopo. 



