482 SIR V. BROOKE ON AFRICAN BUFFALOES. [May '20, 



The identity of the animal procured by Captain Clapperton in 

 Central Africa with the smaller species of Buffalo met with by 

 Riippell during the early part of this century, and more receutly by 

 Heuglin in Eastern Africa, has, however, long been suspected. A 

 female at present existing in the Senckenbergian Museum at Frank- 

 fort stands labelled, and has, I believe, been always considered by 

 Dr. Riippell a specimen of Bubalus brachyceros. Heuglin also, in 

 his 'Antilopen und Biiffel ' (1863, p. 25), enters with some care 

 into a comparison of the two species of Buffalo met with by him in 

 North-east Africa, the smaller of which he refers to the Bubalus 

 brachyceros of Gray. 



In conclusion, I would say that although, in my opinion, the 

 matter is far from being satisfactorily settled, yet I consider that 

 the fact of the smaller species of Buffalo of Eastern Africa possess- 

 ing the remarkably shaggy ears hitherto supposed to be characteristic 

 of the Buffalo of Central and Equatorial Africa, taken in connexion 

 with the significant fact that, as regards the character and inclina- 

 tion of the horns, intermediate examples completely bridge over the 

 wide difference of characters exhibited by such specimens as the 

 animals now alive at Berlin and the skull and horns we have this 

 evening considered, goes far to strengthen the probability that the 

 various specimens mentioned in this paper represent but one species — 

 a species that in the course of its distribution over an area so extensive 

 and diversified varies considerably, becoming more sharply definite in 

 distinctive characters as it reaches the western limits of its range. 



Should this view be correct, it is remarkable that Bubalus coffer, 

 possessing an equally wide geographical range, exhibits no analogous 

 variations, specimens from Abyssinia being, so far as I am aware, 

 indistinguishable from those from the Cape. 



Although the correctness of this conclusion appears to me in a 

 high degree probable, I have considered it advisable, in the subjoined 

 arrangement of the synonymy of Bubalus pumilus, to keep the refer- 

 ences connected with the eastern and western races distinct. It will 

 be easy to unite them should future research establish the specific 

 unity of the two forms. 



It will be seen also that I have included Bubalus planiceros 

 (Blyth, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 157, figs. 4 & 4a) amongst the synonyms of 

 the western race, as, although the horns in the College of Surgeons 

 and in the King's-College Museum (upon which Mr. Blyth es- 

 tablished the species) exhibit some peculiarities in common, I have 

 been unable to perceive their specific value. At the same time it is 

 with much diffidence that I venture to dissent from so high an au- 

 thority in the Bovidse as Mr. Blyth. 



Bubalus pumilus. 



Horns short, compressed from before backwards, separate at their 

 roots, and spreading almost horizontally outwards until they become 

 suddenly attenuated and rounded, their tips turning upwards and in 

 some specimens backwards. Their anterior basal surfaces much 

 flattened, and traversed by numerous transverse corrugations. 



