The Zoology of North American Big Game 



The buffaloes (Bubatus) are large and clumsy 

 animals with horns more or less compressed or flat- 

 tened at their bases, set low down on the vertex, 

 which does not show the high transverse ridge of 

 true oxen and gaurs. In old bulls of the African 

 species the horns meet at their base and completely 

 cover the forehead. In the ami of India they are 

 enormously long. The dorsal spines are not much 

 elongated, and there is no distinct hump; the pre- 

 maxillae are long enough to reach the nasals. Hair 

 is scanty all over the body, and old animals are 

 almost wholly bare. The small and interesting 

 anoa of Celebes, and the tamarao of Mindoro, are 

 nearly related in all important respects to the 

 Indian buffalo, and the carabao, used for draught 

 and burden in the Philippines, belongs to a long 

 domesticated race of the same animal. 



Finally, in the genus Bison the horns are below 

 the vertex as in buffaloes, but are set far apart at 

 the base, which is cylindrical; they are short and 

 their curve is forward, upward and inward; the 

 anterior dorsal and the last cervical vertebrae have 

 long spines which bear a distinct hump on the 

 shoulders; the premaxillae are short and never 

 reach the nasals; there are fourteen, or occasion- 

 ally fifteen, pairs of ribs, all other oxen having but 

 thirteen, and there is a heavy mane about the neck 



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