ARTIODACTYLA 329 



African mammals, the others being the elephant, lion, leopard and 

 rhinoceros; but Hubbard says the buffalo is not dangerous when not 

 molested. 22 



The carabao, better known as the water buffalo, native in India, intro- 

 duced into Egypt, Palestine, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, China, 

 Japan, Hawaiian and Philippine Islands and the Malay Archipelago, is 

 one of the most useful animals in some oriental regions. It gives rich 

 milk, and is the "strongest beast of draft in the world except the ele- 

 phant/' 23 especially useful in the muddy rice fields, because of its 

 spreading feet, an adaptation to swamp life. It has been estimated that 

 there. are 20,000,000 of them in India, 1,222,000 in the Philippines and 

 415,000 in Bulgaria. 24 They are used not only as draft animals, but also 

 as beasts of burden, each capable of carrying on its back a load weigh- 

 ing from 1800 to 2500 pounds. 25 Probably most of the 479,808 buffalo 

 skins mentioned on a preceding page as having been imported into Ger- 

 many in 1909-1910 were water buffalo. There is always a market for 

 buffalo skins of any kind, and the flesh of the younger animals is ex- 

 cellent. The water buffalo is, next to the tiger, the most dangerous 

 mammal in India, and it is able to successfully cope with the tiger. 

 Many are still found in a wild state, and even in captivity they some- 

 times attack men. In 1910, sixteen human beings were killed by buf- 

 faloes in British India. 26 



The wild yak still exists on the high, bleak plateau of Tibet. "The 

 breed provides the domesticated animals of Tibet, without which life 

 would be impossible. Sure-footed as goats, they traverse the roughest 

 passes, they cross snow-covered glaciers with a glissade." 27 They fur- 

 nish the people of that desolate region with meat and milk, are used as 

 both draft and saddle animals, and their tails are prized by the 

 Chinese as tassels. They have been successfully crossed with domestic 

 cattle. 



The wildebeest, an African game animal, runs wild in herds, and is 

 valuable for its flesh. Stomachs examined by Roosevelt contained only 

 grass, no browse. 28 Africa possesses a considerable number of species 

 of game animals, representing several distinct subfamilies, usually re- 



22 Hubbard, Journ. Mammalogy, x, 295-296, 1929. 



23 The wanderings of the water buffalo, Ann. Kept. Smithsonian Inst. for 1901, 

 pp. 679-682; reprinted from London Spectator, Aug. 31, 1901, pp. 278-279. 



24 Holmes, Hides and skins, Yearbook U. S. Dept. Agric. for 1917, PP- 425-446. 



26 Austin, Natl. Geog. Mag., xvui, 688, 1907. 

 28 Science, xxxvii, 938, 1913. 



27 Jennison, Natural history: animals, p. 232, 1927. 



28 Roosevelt, African game trails, p. 47, 1910. 



