BUFFALO 



187 



We could now examine our noble trophies at leisure 

 what superb pictures of brute-power and massive 

 strength ! Sullen deep-set eyes overhung by beetling 

 bosses, rugged and ridged like primeval rock ; foreheads 

 hairless, shaved clean by constant crashing through 

 thorn-thicket and jungle ; but bushy, almost walrus-like 

 whiskers pendent from either lip, forming a sort of 

 moustache ; and there was a strong black bristly beard 

 beneath the chin. But beyond these hirsute muzzles, a far 

 more important character differentiates the buffalo of the 

 White Nile from Bos caffer of East and Central Africa. 

 The horns spread out laterally on a far more even plane, 

 less decurved downwards, and the frontal bosses instead 

 of being convex, are nearly flat across the basal palm. 



Following are the measurements of these two buffalo 

 bulls, shot Nuer country, February igth, 1914: 



Deadweight estimated at 1 500 Ib. apiece. 



The Sudan buffalo displays two constant but quite 

 distinct types of horn, namely: (i) That with broad 

 lateral sweep but relatively narrow bosses; and (2) the 

 shorter type wherein the bosses are always deep and 

 sometimes of almost exaggerated depth. The two 

 particular buffaloes just described, and whose horns are 

 shown in the photograph annexed, happen typically to 

 represent both forms, though both were shot from the 

 same herd. I read that the Sudan buffalo is a small race, 

 only standing 4 feet at shoulder. That is incorrect. In 

 size they quite equal, on an average, their cousins in 

 South or Central Africa, measuring at shoulder from 4^ to 



